Blade: Sire's Return
by Hezza62
Summary: As the title suggests, Blade's sire, Deacon Frost, is brought back from oblivion, and he may have brought some other hellbeasts with him. This fic concentrates on new character: Caitlyn
1. Introducing Caitlyn

_**AN: Hi there! Hezza here. I'm still getting the hang of this chapter thing, so hopefully I get this right. Bear with me if I haven't. AND, I'm still working out the specifics of the rating system, so I might have overrated it. I'll fix it later if I can.**_

_**Is there a standard disclaimer for these stories? You'd think we'd already be covered, considering the nature of the site, but if I must….**_

_**D: Blade and all characters from the movies do not belong to me. I "borrowed" them, and I promise to return them in mint condition or face penalty charges.**_

Foreword: Deacon Frost, as La Magra the Blood God, had long since been vanquished by Blade. The deity had been silenced, but what of the vampire that housed it? The very vampire who had made Blade what he was, the Daywalker. A half-vampire with all of their strengths, and only one of their weaknesses – the thirst.

The ritual to invoke the Blood God had required Blade's blood and the souls of pureblood vampires. Blade had survived the process, thanks to a rescue and a blood donation from Karen Jonson, a haematologist who had also been kidnapped by Deacon Frost. Blade had lost his mother to Deacon Frost, and had been forced to destroy them both.

Since that time Blade had encountered genetic crossover experiments with animals and the vampire gene – guard dogs mostly. He'd also seen and exterminated an experimental vampire strain, "Reapers", that fed on both humans and vampires, regenerated quickly, and had a protected heart that was difficult to penetrate with silver.

He'd made contact with the Night stalkers, humans who were vampire hunters, and with them, had defeated the original vampire, Dracula, or Drake. They had released a virus –Day-Star – into the city, a virus that targeted vampire blood and destroyed them from the inside out.

After defeating Drake, Blade had disappeared to resume his battles with the denizens of the night.

The only surviving members of that particular group of Nightstalkers were Abigail Whistler (the daughter of Blade's late mentor), and Hannibal King, an ex-vampire who'd been cured to turn vampire hunter. With them was the young daughter of the late Dr Summerfield, Zoe, who was still years away from being ready to join the fight.

However, other units of Nightstalkers existed. A few extra fighters had already been dispatched to complete their unit, and Abby and King awaited their arrival. A man named Caulder, one of the Nightstalkers' designated drivers and the person who had manufactured Dr Summerfield's Day-star formula, had already joined up with Abby and King.

888

A lone figure walked down the empty trash-ridden streets, nervously clutching her expensive bag to her stomach. She was a young blonde girl, her white, bead-encrusted party dress implying that she shouldn't be in these dark, dirty, streets. She should have been on the arm of a handsome young man in a tux, drinking wine or champagne. Her heels clacked along the pavement, her footsteps matching her panicked breathing. She turned into an alleyway, where darkness loomed and scattered trash lay discarded in the dirt.

She knew she was being watched, she could feel it.

Suddenly two figures emerged from the shadows next to her and pushed her to the opposite wall. She was shoved into the lamplight that stretched dimly toward them from the street, so they could see her properly. She had a pretty young face, and they blanketed it with the reek of their combined stinking breaths. One of them had his hands at her throat, fumbling at her gold jewellery.

Something in the girl's eyes changed, her mouth quirked upwards in a hungry smile. She grabbed the groin of the one on the left, and lifted him from the ground and launched him into the air with one fluid motion. At the same time she grabbed the throat of the other and bashed his head into the wall. Her milky white fangs extended and she tore into his throat, with her right hand gripping his head and her left arm wrapped around him to keep his hands at his sides. He shrieked in pain and terror.

Another vampire, the missing man in the tux, entered the alleyway behind her to share her meal. His expression was one of mild satisfaction, until he abruptly and silently burst into flames from the inside–out. As the dust cleared a figure could be seen behind his scattering remains, walking forward, toward the she-vamp and her prey.

The blonde's hair was pulled sharply backward, ripping her mouth from her victim. In surprise she let him go and tried to face her attacker. She was punched in the face and kicked in the abdomen, forcing her back into the wall. She blindly swiped out at the assailant.

Her vision cleared and she saw another young woman, with medium length dark hair tied back, with black pants and a black long-sleeved shirt under an unbuttoned, thigh-length dark coat. She had a long knife belted to her right side. It escaped the vampire's notice that the knife was made of silver, as were the stakes belted to the huntress' left thigh.

The vampire swung at her again, but found her arm grabbed by the huntress and yanked straight, with her wrist twisted in the woman's grip so the vampire couldn't escape. The woman pulled the vampire around and slammed her into the wall, then whipped out a stake and struck her in the back with it. The vampire disintegrated with a high-pitched groan of anguish.

The woman turned to the man clutching himself and staring in terrified awe at her and where the vampire had stood. She then looked down at the barely conscious, bleeding man, still clutching jewellery at her feet and she stared at him with a look bereft of pity. She would waste no cure on this scum of the streets.

She gestured with her hand and concentrated, and the bitten man burst into flames much like the male vampire had, leaving no evidence of her kills. She walked away without a second glance at the surviving thief, who backed into the wall and cowered from her.

888

"Abby." A male voice said from the shadows to the sentry on guard. Abigail turned and acknowledged the newcomer. She'd seen the jeep pull up and had been expecting the new fighter.

"Kevin." She said. "I thought Caitlyn was coming with you." She stood at the railing just outside of the building, under a UV spotlight. It wasn't working right then, but there was a normal light beside it, illuminating her post.

Kevin stepped into the light and grinned. "She was itching for a kill, and when she sensed some suckers, she was on her way. Don't worry, she assured me it wouldn't take her long, and she knows the way here."

He wore dark pants and boots. He was Caucasian with dark brown, slightly curly hair and a clean-shaven face. His eyes were dark brown, and he had the kind of sweet smile and charming attitude that appealed to women, and he knew it. Kevin was the kind of guy that flirted to make a girl fond of him and to make her feel good about herself.

Under his dark brown jacket was holstered two guns, filled with silver bullets, and a silver-plated knife was hidden beneath his jeans, strapped to his right shin. There were more weapons in the jeep, both his and Caitlyn's.

"There shouldn't be that many vampires left in this city, not since we set off the virus." Abigail said, looking out across the bridge toward the city.

"She said that as we came in, that the sucker population had definitely gone down. Which leads me to the question, why are you guys still here if there aren't as many of them to exterminate?" Kevin stood at the railing next to Abby.

"We've got no one to look after Zoe while we go hunting. With less chance of an encounter here, it's safe enough to send one of us out while the other stays back at base. Now that you guys are here, we can relocate to somewhere a little more populated. We'll be leaving tomorrow."

"Cool. I don't want to stay around here if I'm just going to get bored." Kevin smiled. "Does that mean that King is out hunting?"

"Not really hunting, just patrolling." Abigail shrugged as she spoke, as though she didn't think it was necessary. "The only vampires in the city should be those that have come here within the last two weeks, so he's not really expecting to fight tonight. We're all prepared for it anyway, just in case."

Kevin nodded. "So where's Zoe? I haven't seen her in years." He grinned.

"Inside, sleeping. She's still …" Abby looked a little sad for a moment, "She's still a little depressed about her mom."

Kevin nodded. "She would be. Give the kid time. You know, it's weird to have a Nightstalker who's not lost somebody or been affected by the vamps in some sad way. It's what motivates us, it's usually what gets us into the business in the first place."

"So what got you in? I never heard the story."

"Well, I …" Kevin started, and sighed, grinning.

"You flirted with the wrong girl, didn't you?" Abby teased him.

"You could say that it was something like that."

888

The sun was minutes away from rising, the atmosphere was already becoming lighter. King was heading back towards the base on his motorcycle. Caitlyn stepped out into the street and waved him to her.

"Aren't you supposed to be wearing a helmet?" she asked slyly, when he pulled up.

"Well it's nice to see you too, Caitlyn." Hannibal said, with good humour.

Caitlyn laughed. "I was only thinking, it would seem kind of ironic after fighting all of these so-called deadly vampires to end up killing yourself with a simple bike accident. Anyway, how've you been?"

"Pretty good, but it's not like there's been a lot of action around here lately, so I've been getting bored." Hannibal shrugged.

"Bored?" Caitlyn said playfully. "I just killed a couple of suckers about an hour ago. I'm sorry you missed them. I'll save the next ones for you then, so you don't lose your touch."

"Me, lose my touch? I don't think so," Hannibal said, acting as though she'd offended him. Then he got serious again. "You sense anything else around here?" he asked.

"Hmm," Caitlyn glanced around. "It's nearly daytime, but I don't think there are any more around anyway. That virus did some great work."

"Yeah," Hannibal said. "It's too bad it only worked with Drake's blood. We could rid the entire world of them."

"But then what would we do for a living?" Caitlyn asked with a smile. "Can I get a ride?"

"Why sure, pretty lady, hop on board" he said, adopting a cowboy accent, "But I'm afraid I don't have a helmet for you, what with the danger of bike accidents and all."

"Whatever." Caitlyn laughed, sitting behind him.


	2. Caitlyn's Past

Rebecca Groveton was hunted one night. A pureblood attacked her as she was walking home with a male friend. The man was killed, his neck snapped quickly so the vampire could take his time and enjoy the woman. She tried to fight back, but he quickly overpowered her. The vampire discovered that after only one swallow he was sated of his bloodlust. He was 'full', and no longer felt the need to feed. He felt refreshed and strong, more so than after any other feeding where the victim was fully drained.

After only a little more than an hour, Rebecca had her full complement of blood back in her system. She had somehow remade what she'd lost within her own body.

He let her go, and had his familiars watch her for the next few days, but she did not turn. She was immune to vampire infection. When he next felt the hunger he took her again, for he craved the exhilarating feeling her blood gave him.

This time he did not release her, nor did he stop at just feeding from her. Rebecca was attractive for a human, and she had a fiery personality which the vampire found engaging. It was not uncommon for vampires to turn those whom they desired, but Rebecca could not be turned. As a human she suffered his desires, but he was not unkind to her. He allowed no other vampires to take either blood or sex from her.

As a pureblood immortal, he had been around for centuries, and knew what it was to be a gentleman. Contrary to some conceptions concerning cold-hearted killers, vampires can love, though usually only their own kind because they regard humans as inferior. Rebecca was no mewling maiden, she had spirit.

He made sure she was comfortable, and she grew used to her life. She'd not have admitted it to anyone, least of all herself, but she even grew to like her dark protector.

He was killed by jealous vampires while he was protecting her. He wouldn't share her, and he paid with his life.

Humans can have human children. Pureblood vampires can have pureblood vampire children.

Only once before had a human woman given birth to something with vampire blood – Blade – but at the time he had not yet made himself known to the vampires. No one suspected that Rebecca could have been pregnant when she ran away, but she was. While in hiding, she had a daughter.

Caitlyn was not a vampire. She never grew fangs, never had the thirst, was never allergic to sunlight, garlic or silver. But nor was she completely human. She had her mother's trait of recovering quickly from bloodloss, even faster than Rebecca could. She'd been bitten once, and did not turn. She didn't regenerate quite as quickly as vampires, but she was still a fast healer. She could see well in the dark, and was strong, and agile, though she had trained herself to be like that during her childhood. She did have superior strength and speed to normal humans, and plenty of endurance, but she never made this obvious unless she had to fight, in which case there were no unwanted witnesses by the end.

When Caitlyn met her first vampire, she found that she could sense his presence near her, feel his hunger. She was still young and inexperienced, so he got her. The vampire didn't get to tell anyone about it, because she killed him while he was still foolishly distracted by what her blood was making him feel. After that encounter she used her senses as a warning, and she continued enhancing her other skills. No vampire had bitten her since.

Caitlyn had power, she could feel it running through her veins. She learned how to heal others and bring life to the dying. She could sense both life and death. She learned how to ignite things like flesh, so that she could destroy a vampire even if there was no silver handy.

To balance this destructive power, Caitlyn learned how to grow things, a peaceful and calming exercise that proved to have a practical purpose. Rebecca's little garden started overflowing with vegetables. They needed to eat, after all. Caitlyn also grew lots of garlic, she even made it grow all over the outside walls of the house, a smelly but effective vampire repellent. An oak tree was grown strong and tall next to the house in a matter of hours, and Caitlyn refined her control by forming twirls and knots in the limbs. She made a comfortable, moss-covered bench out of one of the thick roots.

To make a long story a little bit shorter, Caitlyn came out of hiding and started hunting vampires for a living when she was old enough. She found Kevin one night, having been drawn to the sense of hungry vamps. He was heavily outnumbered and she evened the odds for him. She'd been with his unit of the Nightstalkers ever since.


	3. Elsewhere

Elsewhere, in other cities, the vampire population had remained untouched by the effects of Day-star. New nests sprang up all over the place. It seemed that the cities of Prague, Bucharest, Budapest and Moscow were having problems at the time.

A young blonde girl sat crying on the doorstep of a building, the snow sprinkling on the body of a woman lying beside her, her blood a crimson stain against the fallen white powder. The woman wore a fur-lined coat and cap, and scuffed black boots. The child wore an oversized blue jacket, a denim skirt and thick brown stockings. Her big toes protruded through holes in the stockings.

A passing couple in formalwear hurried over to discover the trouble. The girl looked up at their approach, her face moistened only by the damp in the air.

She got to her feet while the couple rolled the woman over, the tall, brown-haired man trying to cover the neck wound with his hand. There was some blood, but no actual wound beneath his gloved fingers. The woman in a blue dress and fur wrap was rummaging through her purse, muttering hysterically. She pulled out a mobile phone as the girl put a cold hand on her shoulder.

A shot rang out, and the little girl staggered as the couple looked around in panic. For a moment the girl looked agonised, then she dispersed into red hot ashes. The woman recoiled in horror and the man shielded her and the body from the embers, his dark overcoat too damp to catch alight.

The seemingly injured woman sat up abruptly, and took hold of the man's coat. She bared her fangs and tried to drag the couple away into the building, but another shot rang out, piercing her temple. She too, burst into ash particles. The couple clutched each other and ran, never seeing their saviour.

Blade holstered his gun and sniffed in disapproval. This was the third time this week he'd seen the crying kid routine. Sometimes it was a familiar that pretended to be injured, this time it was another vampire, but every time the kid had been turned already. The vampires seemed to think it was amusing that children, innocents, could do so well at drawing prey to them.

He jumped from his vantage point, the roof of a nearby building, landing lightly on the snow-covered path. Several people who were not really people emerged from their hiding places a moment later. An ambush. They loosely circled him, an assortment of weapons in their hands.

Blade grinned. "One, two, three, four, five of you suck-heads and three familiars. Are you mother-f$k#s crazy or just stupid?"

They attacked, but did not last long. Blade kept throwing them aside and using his extendable dagger to dust the vampires. He broke the neck of one of the familiars, stabbed another and slammed the third into a building. The third one was still alive when Blade yanked him to his feet by his hair.

"Now whose scam is this?" Blade asked, gesturing back at the doorway where the girl had been acting as bait for unwary good Samaritans. The man had blood streaming down his face from his nose and a scalp wound, his straggly black hair being held in a fierce grip. Blade searched him and found the following glyph tattooed on him.

"La Magra's vessel will destroy you, Daywalker!" the man gasped and bubbled through the blood.

"What the f$k are you doing wearing Frost's mark? He's been dead for a while now, a+hole."

Blade rammed the man's face into the wall again. The man cried out in pain, his skull was likely fractured. "What do you mean, La Magra's vessel?" he demanded.

"Reborn, he's been reborn, aaagh," the man cried. "The god was banished, yes, but the vessel was brought back with blood, special blood!"

"What, pureblood?" Blade asked, remembering the ritual to bring forth the blood-god.

"No, human blood, special human blood. They found one, a woman, someone called Groveton, with powerful unknown qualities in her blood."

"Where?" Blade hit the familiar's head against the wall again.

"I don't know, but they took her to the Temple of Eternal Night and bled her dry in some ritual. The vessel was reborn!" The man gasped.

"So what are his people doing out here?" Blade demanded.

"Building the ranks," the man whimpered, "they want an army."

Blade bashed his skull against the wall and his face caved in. He threw the dead familiar aside. "Frost," he growled, and stalked off.


	4. A new beast

Caulder drove Kevin, Caitlyn, Abby and Zoe, while King took the bike. They travelled through the day to make it to New York, taking up residence in one of Blade's old haunts near the train tracks.

"So, what's the deal with this place?" King asked as he wheeled the bike under cover. Everyone else exited the jeep, taking in the mess left a few years earlier when Whistler had been ambushed by Deacon Frost's crew.

"Blade and my father worked here for a while." Abby explained. "There are a couple of nests in this city, left over from when a vampire named Frost was doing damage. He's dust now, Blade's work."

"We're also here because there have been reports of a strange, vicious creature roaming the streets at night and killing people, leaving drained, torn up bodies in the streets." Caitlyn explained. She was still wearing her sunglasses from the car trip, pushed back up on her head. "We're pretty certain that the vamps have been screwing around with genetic experiments again."

"Like the vampire Pomeranian?" King asked.

"Worse," Caitlyn replied. "Apparently this thing is big, bigger than a dog, maybe smaller than a horse."

"Great," Kevin said, "Now we're animal control."

"I thought you didn't want to get bored?" Abby asked. Kevin rolled his eyes.

"Well," Caulder said, "I've got some new toys for you." He pulled a suitcase out of the back of the truck and opened it on a cluttered workbench.

"Earpieces?" King asked.

"There's a little lens in here," he pointed to a small protrusion on the side, "so that not only will we be able to stay in contact, but from here…" he opened up a laptop and switched it on, "we'll be able to see what you see, at the same time as you're seeing it." Four windows appeared on screen, each blank until Caulder activated the earpieces. "There's also a little torch, here, just above the lens, because, you know, vampires being night-dwellers and everything."

"Cool," Caitlyn said, picking one up. "I call tonight's hunting shift."

"Me too." Abby said, taking another. "You guys can stay here with Zoe and start cleaning up the place tonight."

The two male hunters started protesting while Caulder took Zoe to find a place to sleep.

"No," Abby said firmly, "I was stuck at base last night and Caitlyn will need to get a feel for the sucker population, to tell us how many are here and scope out the best hunting spots. If you let us go tonight she can point you guys in a good direction tomorrow when it's your turn,"

"Don't worry boys," Caitlyn reassured them with a smile, "we'll leave some for you."

The guys grumbled a bit more but gave in. Caitlyn pulled their weapons out of the jeep and distributed them. Abby headed for the bike and Caitlyn started walking toward the city, fixing the earpiece in her right ear beneath her loose hair.

"You know, it's already going to be really dark by the time you get there," King said. Caitlyn ignored him and kept walking, gradually picking up speed until she was jogging, then running easily.

"You forget," Kevin reminded him, "she's a lot faster than we are on foot."

King chuckled. "And Blade doesn't even know he's not the only Daywalker."

"She's not a Daywalker." Kevin stated firmly. "She's just … a bit more than human, that's all."

888

Abby turned down a deserted looking street, her bike stowed in a nearby parking complex. She turned on the torchlight in her earpiece, as it had gotten dark. Caulder, back at base, was watching both girls' monitors. He'd gotten out another laptop so that each picture was full screen. He wore a plain, camera-less earpiece so he could hear what the girls said and talk back to them.

King shifted a shelf unit back to an upright position against the fencing wire, then went to stand beside Caulder. "They found anything yet?"

"Abby got a couple of familiars – no new information, and one vamp. Caitlyn's gotten four vampires, and gave their victim our address. Have we got a cure ready?"

"Yeah, I'll go get the Retro Virus."

"It's a dark-haired, pony-tailed guy with a pierced eyebrow. Tell Kevin to let him in when he gets here."

"Okay." King was about to turn away to notify Kevin, who was doing the guard shift, when he thought he saw something.

"Tell Abby to turn back to her right and look up," he told Caulder.

"Here," Caulder handed him one of the field earpieces. "It's on." King fixed it in his ear.

"Abby, it's King," he said, still looking at the screen.

"Yeah," he heard. The black and white image paused, she was facing a high wooden fence that blocked off an alleyway.

"Look up, to your right, the top of that building."

She did, showing the top of the building, the cloudy night sky beyond it.

"Oh," King said, "I thought I saw movement. Never mind."

"Wait," Abby said. "I think I hear something." The on-screen image moved as Abby tried to locate the source of the sound. Caitlyn's camera started moving very fast, but the guys were focussed on Abby's screen.

"What does it sound like?" Caulder asked.

"Like grating, or growling," Abby said, raising the top tip of her bow into the camera's view. She was getting ready to fire at whatever it was.

"Abby!" Caitlyn's voice came in loud and clear and urgent. "Move!"

The men looked at her screen, she was fast approaching the other side of the wooden fence. They could now hear the growling as the source of it got close to Abby's earpiece. Abby instinctively ducked and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding getting her back torn to ribbons.

Caitlyn cleared the fence with a scrambling leap. Her screen showed a huge beast behind Abby as she landed on the cement on the other side of the fence.

It had powerful shoulders and stocky hindquarters, it's feet containing long, razor-like claws. It had a big, beach ball sized head filled with big teeth. It was like, as King would call it later, the Great Dane from Hell. It had a long tail that it thrashed about in annoyance.

Caitlyn sped to it and leaped at it, kicking its jaws away from Abby's shoulder. Caitlyn kept going past it, giving Abby a chance to shoot it. A second later an arrow embedded itself in the beast's side. It whimpered once and kept growling. It staggered as it twisted its neck around to pull out the arrow, which had only gone part of the way in.

"Are you sure you got it in the heart?" King asked, as the beast straightened up. "Caitlyn, incinerate the thing!"

The beast yelped again as its fur began to burn, but it didn't catch alight, at least not at first. Abby took a few steps back as it fixed its gaze on her, its fur beginning to blaze. Caitlyn ran to its side and tried to decapitate it with her long knife, but the silver only got a few inches in. She tugged the blade out and jumped away as it tried to bite her.

"Damn, it's got thick skin," she said, as it finally succumbed to the flames. In a few moments it dispersed into ashes. "I think I can get the blade through, but I'll have to swing harder next time. A human swing won't get the job done. Abby, if you draw back as if it was twice the distance away, you should be able to get the arrowhead to the heart."

"Next time?" Caulder asked. "Is there more than one?"

"There's…" Caitlyn started. Abby was looking at her face and everyone saw the alarm enter it.

She grabbed Abby's arm and barrelled through the wooden fence, sending wood everywhere. Abby looked back and saw one beast come through the hole behind them, another one jumping over the fence. The girls were moving fast, Caitlyn towing Abby along beside her, and Abby was barely keeping on her feet.

"How many are there?" Caulder asked.

"I can't tell," Caitlyn answered, her breathing unhampered by her pace. "Their signature is different to vamps." She slammed Abby and herself into a side alley, narrowly avoiding being caught by the leaping beasts. They skidded past as Caitlyn went back around the corner to keep them in sight.

"Get your UV beam ready," she shouted to Abby as the creatures scrambled back to their feet. She'd raised both her arms and suddenly spiny vines burst from the ground, wrapping around the hell-dogs, and pulling them down to the cracked pavement. Their lower jaws split in agony as the extra sharp spikes dug into them. More and more vines sprang up to wrap around them as the dogs struggled to escape. Caitlyn wrapped their jaws closed and the feet together so they couldn't injure Abby as she walked towards them.

Abby sliced the heads from the beasts and the vines collapsed as the creatures beneath them were rendered to flickering ash. Caitlyn let them withdraw back into the ground.

"Well that was new," King said, sighing with relief because the girls were okay.

"There aren't any nearby," Caitlyn said, "but I think there are more of them. We have to find the source, whoever is making these things, and destroy them."

"How many do you think there could be?" Abby asked, panting a little from the mad dash.

"Tonight, not too many, but I think that more beasts are being made." Caitlyn ran a hand through her hair. "I've got an awful feeling that once whoever it is figures out that these ones have been killed, they'll send more of them out in force."

"Then we'll have to do the same." Abby said. "You have to be with us next time. If you hadn't sensed I was in trouble and warned me, I'd be dog food. I think we'll need the guys on this one."

"Come back to base now." Caulder told them. "King, don't forget that you've got to warn Kevin before he shoots that poor bastard coming here."

King nodded and left to get to Kevin's post.

"All right," Abby said, "I'm on my way."

"I'll be back soon, there's one more sucker close-by that I want to get," Caitlyn said. "It's just one vampire, I won't take long."

"Happy hunting," Abby told her, jogging toward the parking complex.


	5. An old enemy

"Release her," Caitlyn demanded of a shirtless male vampire who was holding a terrified young woman in front of himself. He couldn't be burned when he was so close to a person, and Caitlyn needed to be able to see him more clearly to be able to successfully work any kind of magic on him. Besides, she wanted a hand-to-hand kill this time. She was itching for a good physical fight. He was standing on the second-floor balcony of a fire-escape. The girl's jumper was torn at the shoulder but she hadn't been bitten yet.

The vampire grinned, baring his extended fangs. He had short, coppery-blonde hair, was clean-shaven and was tall and slim, with a sinewy build. Caitlyn would have found him attractive if he'd had a pulse and some colour in his skin. He had a tiny scar on his right eyebrow, the old wound meaning that he hadn't been born a vampire. He was barefoot, but wearing dark cargo pants.

He said, "Well, hi there, kitten," and then abruptly threw the girl at Caitlyn, who jumped and caught her mid-air, setting her down on her feet.

"Run home," she said, and the girl obeyed, not even sparing a backward glance. Her footsteps pattered around a corner, but neither Caitlyn nor the vampire spared her another glance.

"You're pretty strong," the vampire said conversationally, his eyes locked on the huntress, taking her in, inch by inch. "You know, for a…"

"For a girl?" Caitlyn said coldly, an eyebrow raised. Likewise, her gaze didn't flicker from his. She drew her blade, twirled it menacingly, and stood ready.

"For a human," he said, still grinning. He crouched a little.

"Not quite right," Caitlyn said, taking a step forward.

He sprang across to the roof of the building behind her. Caitlyn jumped to the balcony with one strong leap as he watched. She turned and jumped after him as he took off over the rooftops.

"Cocky bastard," Caitlyn muttered as he glanced back, still grinning, still running, increasing his speed as he saw that she was keeping up.

They soon ran out of buildings as the vampire launched himself out across six lanes of traffic.

"Caitlyn, I don't think you can make…" Caulder said in her ear as she followed. Caitlyn sailed through the empty air over the fast cars below. She knew before she was halfway that she would only just fall short, but she could grab onto one of the windowsills of the building and haul herself up. If the vamp thought she'd fallen she'd be able to surprise him.

She saw the vamp blowing her a kiss as she dropped below the building line. She grabbed and gripped the top edge of the top floor windowsill. Before she knew it he'd reached down and seized her left wrist, the one holding the blade. He yanked her up and pulled her close. He took a handful of her hair in his other hand, deliberately crushing the earpiece. He held hard and shook the blade from Caitlyn's left hand. He then used his grip on her head and her arm to hold her in close as he violently met her lips with his own. He was kissing her hard and hungrily, and clutching her close to his body.

'What the?' was all Caitlyn had time to think before she reflexively kneed him in the groin. She raised her free hand and wrapped vines around his legs from up the side of the building. They were weak because she couldn't see him fully.

She pulled back as he let go of her, and struggled to keep her balance as she almost walked backward off the edge of the building. The vines shrivelled as she lost all concentration. Her left leg was lifted a little in her attempt to regain balance, and the vampire grabbed it and yanked her back, off her feet. She hit her backside and her head on the cement roof and groaned. The broken earpiece fell from her ear. She was just trying to sit up as he crouched by her left side. He wrapped his left arm around her knees and his right arm around her lower ribs, gripping her shirt and pulling it upwards so that he could sink his fangs into the exposed flesh of her waist. She inhaled sharply, gritting her teeth.

Caitlyn was more angry than worried. She knew she'd survive a bite because she was immune to vampire infection and a vamp wouldn't take too much of her blood. But she was angry with herself for letting it happen and she was angry with the vampire for what he was doing to her.

She took a fistful of his hair in her left hand and yanked his head back from her wound. She couldn't kick him and it was a bad angle for a punch but she hit him anyway. He loosened his grip a little and she tried to roll away.

He was stronger than her, and he dragged her back until they were face to face. He kissed her again, getting the taste of her own blood in her mouth. He bit down firmly on her bottom lip so that she bled there too. He was holding her wrists and ignoring her knees hitting his midsection.

She bit him back, hard, in an effort to make him withdraw, but he growled deep in his throat with excitement, his grip on her hands and on her lips tightening in response. He didn't stop, so she head-butted him.

He recoiled in pain, but he was laughing as she scrambled up and away from him. 'Damn fighting him hand-to-hand, the bastard can burn', she thought. She raised her hand above her waist, visualising the focussing of her power, and clenched her fist, but he did not ignite. She took another step away and tried again as he got to his feet.

"What's your name, sweet thing?" he asked, cleaning the blood from his mouth and licking his fingers. He wasn't smiling as arrogantly now, it was more a suggestive leer. His mouth was still open, tempting, as he ran his finger over his lips, the tips of his fangs pink and deliberately visible. His stare was constant, focussed and bright, his ice-blue eyes attempting to hold her there.

Caitlyn couldn't believe that a vampire was actually unnerving her. Her long knife was on the ground behind him. She took a stake from among those belted at her thigh. She threw it at his heart but he reacted and caught it, millimetres from his skin. She had anticipated that he would avoid it in some way, she'd somehow known that he wouldn't be killed by her tonight. The point of her attack was in fact to distract him so she could gather up what was left of her earpiece and leave.

She heard him give a low chuckle as she put distance between them. She had to find out why she couldn't make him burn. She ran, not slowing until she was sure she couldn't feel his presence anymore. She knew he'd let her go without pursuing, which made her even more bewildered.

He gazed at her retreating back with a sneaky smile. "I'm gonna find you, kitten," he promised softly. He took a step forward and went to one knee to retrieve the knife from the ground, testing the blade's sharpness with his finger. The girl was out of sight now, but he used the knife to salute in her direction, then he walked away.

The sun was still a couple of hours from rising when she came into Kevin's line of sight. She slowed down, and let him see clearly that it was her before she got too close, and he waved her in.

"You're bleeding," he commented as she approached, looking at her mouth. A dribble of blood ran from the left corner of her mouth to her chin.

"Yeah, a little," she said, lifting her shirt so he could see the bite mark. There was some drying blood around the wound, but it was already closing.

"Did you get him, or her, at least?" he asked, his eyebrows raised questioningly, as his gaze switched from her stomach to her face.

"Him." Caitlyn said, her mouth set in a hard line, not looking in Kevin's eyes as she let go of her shirt.

"I take it from the expression that he got away."

"No, _I_ ran away." Caitlyn said, shaking her head. "Kevin, I couldn't burn him, I don't know why. He was _playing_ with me," she was angry still, but a little uneasy, too. "Dammit, I didn't even give him a good fight. The bastard's probably laughing right now."

"At least you don't need a cure," Kevin said. "Cheer up. You'll be fully recovered by tomorrow and we can hunt him down." He touched his guns. "If he won't burn, we'll get him the old fashioned way."

Caitlyn huffed, and Kevin could see that she was still annoyed, or upset, or both. Then she straightened, and brought her emotions under control, retaining her focus, and meeting Kevin's eyes again.

"Did my wounded guy get here all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, Caulder was gonna drive him home as soon as you got back."

"Hmm, Caulder," she said with a mock grimace.

"What?"

"He might be a little annoyed with me; the vamp broke my earpiece right before he started the kissing and biting." She felt for the pieces in her coat pocket.

"The _what_?" Kevin took her arm, thinking he hadn't heard her right.

"That's why my mouth is bleeding." Caitlyn shrugged, putting a finger to the corner of her mouth and looking at it as if to make sure. "The second time he kissed me he bit my lip. I think he just enjoyed making me taste my own blood, like he was trying to make me feel helpless or something. It was about this time that I tried to burn him, and I couldn't.

"It was freaky," she continued, "like he was expecting me to be fast and strong, but he was still so arrogant, not the least bit scared of me, toying with me. He didn't even look surprised when I jumped the highway, even though he knew I was human…well, almost human anyway."

"You jumped the highway?" Kevin was surprised again.

"Just about. If I work on it I think I'd make it next time. I'd just never tried something that big before. But still, he knew I hadn't fallen, he yanked me back up to the roof. Ohh, dammit." Her face screwed up in consternation as she recalled what he'd done next.

"What is it now?" His voice was gentle, coaxing.

"My knife! I had to leave it behind. Whoever-he-is probably has it, my favourite weapon. This wasn't my night." She sighed deeply, and gripped his shoulder in friendly affection. "Thanks, Kev."

"What for," he asked innocently, understanding her. They'd been friends for a while.

"You know," she smiled, "for letting me rant at you, and get it out of my system. I'll see you inside when your shift's over."

"Yeah, okay," he said. She walked past him as he added, "And Cait'?"

She looked back at him.

"We'll get him." Kevin finished as reassuringly as he could.


	6. Allies

The Temple was dark, but Blade could see in the dark. The stale but sharp smell of old blood was a constant reek in the air. Some of it was his blood, he knew, but a more recent scent was evident. He travelled to the familiar upper level, where his own mother had taken him to be bled to death a few years before. The same chamber in which he'd fed from a friend to regain his strength, the same chamber in which he'd killed his mother, to free her, save her from an eternity of evil.

He found Rebecca there, strapped into the device. Her clothes were torn, her dark hair straggling down over her face. She'd been pretty once. Now she looked hollow, mournful. Her wrists were gashed deeply from the steel of the age-old draining device. She had a few bruises on her arms and body, some tiny shreds of skin and blood beneath her fingernails. She'd tried to fight when they came for her.

He saw numerous scars on her neck, she'd been fed from many times, but they were light scars, as if the vampire had been gentle. Blade let her down gently, and burned her bloodless body. He made the attempt, but the device would not burn.

He went down to the lower level, where he had shattered the Blood God. There had been an explosion of blood when he'd destroyed La Magra, but that blood was gone. Not even a smear was left on the smooth marble. Though the event was already past, he could still feel the quiet, leisurely throbbing power of the ritual that had brought the vessel back into existence. He took one last look around, and left the Temple of Eternal Night.

Abby was the one on guard duty the next afternoon. Caitlyn still hadn't figured out where the source of the creatures was, so all of the Nightstalker hunters were going to go out that night to methodically search the city.

A familiar black car drove into the old train yard. Abby held her breath for a moment. Blade had been presumed dead at first after the fight with Drake, then they'd heard of him still fighting vampires elsewhere.

If he was surprised to see his old hideout inhabited, he showed no sign of it as he drove the car past her into the warehouse.

The rest of the Nightstalkers, including Caulder and Zoe, were at a table eating some vegetable stew that Caitlyn had grown and prepared. Kevin had grabbed his gun at first at the unannounced entry, but King and Caulder stopped him as Blade stepped out of the car.

"That's Blade," Zoe pointed out. Caulder ushered her away to her room.

The adults had stood as Blade approached. King gave him a reserved nod of recognition, his face set hard. Caitlyn came out of one of the back rooms, sensing the half-breed's presence. Abigail came in to join them, and Caulder returned from Zoe's room.

It was silent for a moment, until King said. "Long time, no see, Blade. Now what the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Blade said. "Who are these other two?" he carelessly waved a few fingers in Kevin and Caitlyn's directions.

"Kevin Benson." Abigail introduced them. Kevin knew better than to offer a handshake. "And this is Caitlyn Groveton; they're Nightstalkers too, they're with our unit now."

"We're here because there's a new threat in this city," Caulder explained. "We've got footage of great beasts that have been given the vampire gene, and they've been tearing people apart. Plus all the rest of the vampires we're trying to get rid of, as always."

"Is that why you're here?" Abigail asked.

"No," Blade answered. "An old enemy of mine is back in town. A vampire by the name of Deacon Frost."

"We'd heard that you killed him," King said.

"I did." Blade replied. "His followers brought him back."

"How the hell do you bring back a dead vampire?" Kevin asked.

Blade's gaze lingered on Caitlyn. "You look like her," he commented.

"Who?" she asked.

"The woman they sacrificed to bring back Frost, it was someone called Groveton. They said she had special blood. They took it from her in the ritual."

Caitlyn's eyes widened. "Did she, did she have scars, old bite marks, on her neck?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, no, they found her," Caitlyn covered her mouth with her hand. Kevin, who'd known her for some years now, and had heard her stories, gripped her shoulder in sympathy. She shook her head sadly, then looked back at Blade. "How do we find this Frost?" she demanded coldly, taking Kevin's hand off her arm.

Blade had been glancing around the workspace as he stood there, and he raised an eyebrow. "Looks to me like one of you has already found him."

He walked over to the workbench, where a print-out had been made of Caitlyn's vampire, from the footage. He held it up and Caitlyn swore.

"You're kidding, right?" she said, looking angry.

"I don't kid. You've seen him?" Blade asked. "Where?"

"A few blocks over, near Vale Street," she replied, "and then I chased him right over the north freeway." She was clenching her fists and glaring at the photo, and it started to smoulder.

"What the f$k?" Blade dropped the sheet as it ignited.

"Ah, yeah," King explained, "Caitlyn can do that, except, as it seems, when she faces that guy in person."

Blade glared questioningly at Caitlyn but she was storming out to the back room.

"What's her story?" Blade asked of Abby.

"You should really ask _her _that," Abby said. Blade stared at her, crossing his arms, waiting.

Abby sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "Well, the way she tells it, she's not like you, but she is a half-breed, and she's what you might call a witch. She's pretty much human, but her father was a vampire, a pureblood, so she's strong and fast, and she can see in the dark. We're not sure how it happened, but it did.

"Her mom, Rebecca Groveton, the woman you found, had some new blood type or something. The vampire could take just a little from her and not have to feed for several nights, and she'd recover the blood very quickly. That vampire was killed because he wouldn't share her, but Rebecca escaped, while pregnant with Caitlyn.

"We've done tests on Caitlyn's blood, the cells rapidly duplicate themselves, especially when in contact with vampire blood, which she has traces of in her system. The vampires don't know who or what Caitlyn is, and we're trying to keep it that way so she doesn't end up being hunted down for her blood."

"Your turn," Kevin said. "Caitlyn got attacked by Frost last night. Considering we now know that it was her mother who was sacrificed to bring him back, I'm not so sure it was a coincidence. She couldn't burn him. Any other vampire, she can dust just by staring at them, but this one wouldn't burn. He's also the only vampire who's gotten close enough to bite her and is still alive to tell about it. Did he not burn because he's been a god and brought back from death, or maybe because he's had her blood?"

"How the f$k am I supposed to know? I don't even know her, I don't know anything about her." Blade answered. "Did you give her the cure?"

"She doesn't need it," Abby explained. "Both she and her mother are immune to vampire infection. It's why the vampire could keep feeding off Rebecca without her turning."

"Are you gonna help us fight off these new monsters we've found?" King changed the subject.

Blade paused for a moment. "You said you had footage. Show me," he said to Caulder.

Caulder nodded and walked over to the laptop, pulling up Caitlyn and Abby's files simultaneously. He played it through and turned on the audio. He fast forwarded through the girls' earlier kills, and replayed the footage where they dealt with the beasts. Blade watched silently, his arms crossed.

"How'd you know they were there?" he asked.

"I sensed them," Caitlyn said, returning to the shed. "It's how I hunt. I can sense the living and I can sense the dead. It's how we're going to try and track the creatures down, and once we're finished with them and whoever created them, it's how I'm going to go after Frost."

"Frost is my problem," Blade said.

"He's mine too." Caitlyn said. "Even disregarding the fact that my mother is dead because of him – something I believe we have in common – he's tasted me. I can't leave him out there, on the loose – not that I would have anyway."

"Fine," Blade said. "Tag along. If you can lead me to him, even better. Just don't get in my way." He glanced back at the screen. "We'll get the dogs first. What else do you know about them?"

"We don't know who created them," Abby said. "It's possible that they're leftovers from the Talos family's experiments, but the other dogs in that city were destroyed when we set off the virus, and they were also smaller. It wouldn't explain why these ones are different or how they got here, so we're assuming it's someone else."

"Is there any reason to think that Frost might have something to do with it?" Kevin asked Blade. "I mean, he has turned up at the same time the creatures have."

"I was told that Frost was gathering an army…" Blade thought aloud. "It's possible," he decided.

"From our experience last night," Abby continued, "we found out that the creatures are very fast, and they have very thick skin. They're still susceptible to UV light, and it takes a few seconds for them to catch alight, but they can be burned. Uh, we haven't tried garlic, it might still work. You need to use more strength than you would with a vampire to decapitate it or get it in the heart, because of their skin. If you're accurate, you should still be able to shoot them successfully."

"So, you know what we know," King said. "Shall we?" he gestured toward the entrance.

Caitlyn glanced at the entrance and then looked around at the group. "We didn't leave anyone on guard," she commented, "did we?"

"Ah," King dismissed it with a flick of his hand, "you'd have known if someone got too close."

"Well, I _have_ been off my game lately," Caitlyn admitted softly.

Blade turned, saying over his shoulder, "Lead us to them," to Caitlyn, and he began walking out.

The Nightstalker warriors quickly organised themselves, earpieces and weapons and so forth. Caulder was automatically left behind to watch over Zoe and watch their monitors. Sound had been restored to Caitlyn's earpiece, but no picture. The light wasn't functional either, but Caitlyn had no need of it.

A few moments later they stopped outside beside Blade, who was looking at his car.

"What's the problem?" Kevin asked.

"Oh, no," Caitlyn said. One of Blade's tires had been punctured. Sticking out of the wheel was a very familiar knife. Below it on the ground was a blood-red rose. She went to the car and yanked out the knife, holding the blade up for inspection, a grim look on her face. "I left this with Frost," she said simply. She deliberately ignored the rose.

The rest were silent.

"This place isn't safe," Abby said. "He knows we're here."

"I thought you were supposed to know when a suck-head was around?" Blade accused Caitlyn.

Caitlyn gave him an exasperated look. "I don't know, okay? I didn't sense him last night after the fight and I assumed it was because he wasn't following me. Maybe it's like the burning, and I just can't sense him."

"I think you guys are overlooking something huge," King said. "You got here several minutes ago," he said to Blade. "During daylight. It's still daylight now. Are you following me, or should I spell it out for you?"

"Relax." Blade told him. "The vampires were developing an ultraviolet resistant sun-block. I've seen him out in the daylight before. It shouldn't surprise me that he's doing it again." He gazed around, wondering if Frost was still about.

"Caulder?" Caitlyn asked, after turning on her earpiece.

"Yeah," Caulder answered from inside at his desk.

"You can't stay here," she said, one hand on her forehead, as if she was stressed, and the other was resting on her hip. "Take Zoe and go. We're gonna have to meet up later, because the vamps know this place." She glanced up at Blade. "I'd forgotten that they'd found you here before."

"All right," Caulder said. "We'll be gone by sundown. Stay in touch."

"Yeah, we will," Abby agreed.

"So," Blade said to Caitlyn, "Frost has beaten you once already, and now it looks like he's stalking you. What are you gonna do about it?" he challenged her.

"My job," Caitlyn said simply. "And if _he_ comes to _me_, so much the better. It'll save us the trouble of hunting him down." She met Blade's gaze without flinching, her expression resolved.

"Lets go," Kevin said, a loaded shotgun in his hand, "'See if we can catch these monsters while it's still daylight and we've got the advantage."


	7. The threat

Blade had a spare tire, and once it was changed he took the Nightstalkers with him back into the city. Caitlyn sat in the front seat and directed him to the alley they'd been attacked at as the sun descended from the sky. She then got out of the car and started investigating, getting a feel for the creatures.

Blade still had his doubts about Caitlyn's abilities. "Is this shit for real?" he asked the others.

"She'll come through," Kevin assured him.

Blade started believing that Caitlyn was what they said she was when she jumped to the top of the building that King had first sighted the creatures on. Blade stuck his head out of the window to see her clearly. It was now dark, but neither he nor Caitlyn had any problems seeing in the dark.

"Follow me," Caitlyn said, "I'll stay in sight." She walked along the edge of the roof and led them back out to the street. She stayed to the edges as she hopped from roof to roof, occasionally leaping across some of the narrower roads.

"Cross the freeway," she instructed, as she started picking up speed.

"Caitlyn, what are you doing?" King asked.

"Following my instincts," she replied.

Kevin, the only other person with an open window, stuck his head out to watch her approach the north freeway.

"Oh shit," King said, "she's not gonna jump is she?" He had not seen her chase of Frost, and hadn't had much experience fighting alongside her.

"She'll make it," Kevin said calmly.

Caitlyn did, and this time, just made it to the roof. She teetered on the edge for half a second then kept going, glancing back only to check that Blade was still following.

"I thought we weren't going after Frost until after destroying the creatures," Abby said, "you're back where you fought him."

"I think they _are_ connected," Caitlyn said through the earpieces, "the trail is leading me this way." She slowed. "We're close."

"Vampire?" King asked.

"Yes and no," Caitlyn replied, "there are multiple targets." She continued moving forward. "They're lower than, me, I think they're in the streets. Ah, there they are," she said, "across the next intersection, in the Park. I think there's at least one beast there too, the signature's hard to follow."

"Lets go then," Kevin said. Blade took on the lights and drove over the path onto the grass. They could see movement amongst the trees. The hunters exited the car and made chase.

They crested a hill on foot and were brought up short by the scene before them.

There _was_ a hell-dog, two in fact, but one was busy tearing into the guts of a yelling vampire while other vampires were trying to restrain the second with a huge, heavy chain and wire net.

Caitlyn quickly caught up to them as they watched.

"I thought the vampires made them," Abby said quietly.

"Maybe they bit off more than they could chew, and the dogs turned on them," King suggested.

"What's the plan?" Kevin asked.

"Let 'em kill each other," Blade said, "and we'll mop up the leftovers."

"Good enough for me," Caitlyn agreed.

They watched as the feeding hell-dog swiped out with its tail at a vampire that was trying to sneak up on it with another net. The vampire went flying as the one on the ground finally lost his heart to the jaws of the beast and disintegrated into ash.

The other vampires were having more luck, as they secured collars around the second beast's neck and massive paws. They dragged it off to a nearby grey van as one of them stayed behind to guard their retreat, jabbing at the remaining beast with a long steel pole.

"He looks hungry," Kevin commented of the hell-dog, as the vamp turned and ran.

"Let's give puppy a treat then," Caitlyn said, and raised an arm. The vampire tripped as a vine circled his left ankle. The beast pounced, tearing at the arm holding the pole.

The van started pulling away, leaving behind the fallen vampire.

"You guys can get the dog," Caitlyn said, starting to run, "I'm going to see where those guys are going with the other one." She ran for the van, whose back and side windows were blackened against sunlight. Her vines weakened as her focus switched to running for the now accelerating van. She jumped and landed as softly as she could on the roof, crouching down for the ride. Luckily, the creature inside was thrashing around and making enough noise to mask the sound of her landing.

In a matter of moments, Blade was at the hell-dog's side, decapitating it with a downward swing of his sword while it was preoccupied. King and Kevin pulled the one-armed vampire to his feet as the creature became smouldering ash.

Blade placed the tip of his sword beneath the vampire's chin. He was wearing a grey business suit, spattered with blood from the missing limb. He was bald, with a white goatee.

"Who are you working for?" Blade asked.

The vampire didn't say anything, he just hissed with pain.

Blade raised the sword to the level of the vampire's right eye. "Where did those things come from?"

"We, we don't know," the vampire wheezed. "They appeared after the Vessel was remade,"

"Keep talking," Blade said. "What is 'the vessel' doing back here?"

"Vampire War," the vampire said. "The purebloods want him dead. He wants them dead, and he's turning humans to join his ranks. They're all trying to kill each other. He's here looking for a weapon."

"What kind of weapon?"

The vampire swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. Abruptly he shoved his head forward so that the silver met his brain. He crumbled into ashes. The boys jumped back, brushing the embers off their clothes.

"Now what?" Abby asked.

"Find out where your friend is," Blade instructed.

"Yeah," Abby said. "Caitlyn, you there?" She stared vacantly for a few seconds before she started frowning. "Caitlyn?" she asked again, putting a finger to her earpiece. She looked up at the rest of them. "One of you guys try it."

"Caitlyn?" Kevin said, "Where are you?"

"Can you hear us?" King asked.

Abby shook her head. "It's probably her earpiece playing up. It was broken, you know."

"Maybe she can hear us, though, even if we can't hear her." Kevin said.

"Caitlyn, we don't know where you are, and we can't hear you." Abby said. "If you're okay, find one of us, you know how. If you don't sign in by dawn, we're coming after you."

"She can get herself out of trouble." Kevin said with a shrug. "She's probably just having a great time dusting the suckers."


	8. Escape

The van was approaching a large building with a warehouse alongside it. There was no sign of anyone on top of it, or that there ever had been. It slowed as it got to a guard's station. The driver checked in with the armed familiar, and the gate was opened for it.

The van was driven to the warehouse and backed in as the sliding doors were opened from the inside. A few workers in dark, inconspicuous clothing were scattered around the premises, keeping busy with their appointed tasks. Most of the people outside were familiars. The vampires were inside the high-rise and the adjoining warehouse.

From a high window in the building, Deacon Frost watched the van approach. The room he was in was unlit save for the dim light from the workmen down below. He was dressed in black suit pants, a white shirt, shiny black shoes and a black leather jacket. He held a mobile phone to his ear and he was nodding as he lost sight of the vehicle. Tonight he appeared to be quite the businessman.

"So, you got it, no problems?" he said. He shrugged in response to something he heard. "Look, if we can figure out where these things came from, how to make 'em and how to control them, then it doesn't matter if we lose a couple of guys in the process. Yeah. I'll come down soon. Secure it, but don't get too much into the scientific shit until I get there." He hung up, then dialled a new number.

Another vampire entered the room as he waited for the person to pick up. This one was a huge brawny, ex-army psycho with a crew cut and a bad attitude to go with a massive bloodlust. He was dressed like a classic henchman, with the black leather coat and dark sunglasses. His lip seemed to be curled in a permanent scowl, drooping at the right so that the right fang was left exposed.

Frost held a hand up so that he wouldn't be interrupted.

"Yeah," he said into the phone. "Did you see if she took it?" he asked. "Well, why didn't you follow her?" He paused. "Blade! I kinda thought I'd see that asshole again but not this soon. You're sure she left with him? All right, well, track her down for me. Don't worry about him, this chick is kind of a lone wolf, she's not going to stay with the rest of them the whole night. I wanna know when she's alone. What? Are you f$king kidding me? All right then, _I'll_ find her if you're unable to do one simple task for me. Just track down and keep an eye on Blade." He gave an exasperated huff as he snapped the phone closed.

"Why are you wasting time with this girl?" Crew-cut asked him.

"She's my weapon, or at least she's gonna be," Frost said, walking over the dark blue linoleum toward him, and tucking the phone in his coat pocket.

"But you're gonna waste your own time finding her?" Crew-cut insisted.

"It's not a problem, buddy," Deacon said, clapping him on the shoulder. "As soon as I start looking, I'll know pretty much exactly where she is. It's something to do with that ritual that brought me back, I'm not gonna bother explaining it to you."

"And how exactly is she going to be of use to us?" Crew cut asked.

"Well, for one thing, she is hot." Frost said, giving him a toothy grin. "And the taste of her is f$king unbelievable. For another, she is a _vampire hunter_, and she's very good at what she does. She can sense us. We convince her to specialise in purebloods, and she'll do our work for us."

"And if we don't convince her, and she remains sided with the humans?"

"I know her blood, man. It's powerful shit, and I know that she hasn't realised half of what she's capable of. I haven't figured out how yet, but I know that there is a way to use what she's got, to my benefit, even against her will. Once she's under my control, it won't just be the purebloods, the _world_ 'll be at my feet. Until I figure out how, yes, I will send men to follow her. I don't want these animals that we've seen come after us, find her, get the better of her and kill her before I can use her."

"Fine, find her then. I'll bring her in for you, tonight." Crew-cut said.

Deacon laughed. "I think it'll be funny to watch you try, and die. Did I not just tell you that she's exceptionally good at killing our kind? Did I also say that she is powerful? I repeat, she is not your average vampire hunter. Besides, bringing her in is gonna be fun, I'm making that _my_ job, but not yet. What I will do now is figure out where she is. Who have you got that can actually keep track of someone they're supposed to follow?"

"I've got a few people I can call now,"

"Good." Deacon said, looking out of the window. He sniffed and said, "She's close." He frowned. "Really close, actually." He grinned and chuckled. "Ha, she found us!"

"She's here?" Crew-cut said, looking ready to run off and take action.

"Yep, she's already in the building in fact. Don't go anywhere though." He held up a hand to stop the other vampire. "Let's see what she does." He walked over to a desk with a laptop and a landline. He sat down in the high-backed leather chair and picked up the phone.

"Yeah, it's me," he said into the receiver. "I want you to send me the security feed, in my office. Oh, you see her now, huh? No, don't hit the alarm, just quietly send a couple guys down there to keep her occupied, and give me the feed so I can watch," he ordered.

He grinned at the other vampire as he hung up the phone.

"Come here," he said, as he opened up the laptop. The screen showed a white, very clean looking room. Within the room was assorted monitors and machinery, and a couple of rows of plastic-encased 'donors', their forms only just visible through the pearl-coloured plastic. All different people who'd been picked up off the street had been put in induced comas, and suspended to be bled from. There were twenty to thirty people in the room, some hung at floor level, some suspended from above. There was movement at the back of the room.

Caitlyn was next to one of the rows of people. She took out her knife, and sliced down the plastic to free the first of them, a middle-aged man. She caught him as he fell, and yanked out the tubes attached to him. She lay him on the floor and put a hand to his forehead, closing her eyes.

Back in the office, Frost could feel a stirring in the blood that he'd 'borrowed' from the huntress. He shifted in the chair, fixated on what she was doing.

After a few long moments, the man's fingers twitched.

"I thought they were supposed to be brain-dead," Crew-cut said.

"They are, or at least they were," Frost replied.

Caitlyn remained motionless. Though Frost couldn't feel it as strongly now, he knew that power was still flowing through the girl and into the man. Abruptly the man coughed, startling Caitlyn into opening her eyes. She put a finger to her lips when the man looked at her. She took off her coat and gave it to the naked man, glancing up at the two dozen or so other people still suspended in plastic.

He sat up, putting the coat around himself.

"What's your name? Can you remember it?" Caitlyn asked, fiddling at her ear.

"H-Henry," the man stuttered.

"Henry," Caitlyn said, removing her earpiece, "I need you to help me. This isn't working right now, but I want you to listen to it for me. If you hear someone, talk to them and let me know ok?"

He took the earpiece and stared up at her. "What are you going to do?"

Caitlyn stood. "We're about to have company, so stay in back in the corner, out of the way." She took his arm and helped him shuffle into the corner. The camera had full view of the room, so Frost and Crew-cut saw the uniformed guards open the door and enter, holding up their guns.

Caitlyn calmly walked forward, slowly raising her hands in a gesture of surrender. Frost grinned, anticipating her next move. There were three guards, all vampires. All three dropped the guns as they started glowing, red-hot. The one on the left rushed at her. She pulled out a silver stake and staked him as he tried to barrel into her. The other two started fighting her hand to hand, but the same result occurred.

She looked back at the man. "Anything yet?"

"No," he said, looking frightened.

"Okay," she said, ignoring his fear. "Keep trying." She balanced the stake in her hand, and glanced upward at the camera, raising an eyebrow.

"Who are you?" the vampires in the office heard the man say as she threw the stake at the camera lens. The feed stopped abruptly.

Frost laughed, obviously amused. He picked up the phone, to tell security to lock down the floor she was on, but not to send any more men.

"You're just gonna let her ruin some of our stock and roam the floor at will?" Crew-cut asked.

"Nick, just relax, buddy." Frost said. "I'm just letting her amuse herself for a little while. Freeing all of those people will keep her busy for at least twenty minutes, maybe a little more if we keep sending down guys for her to pummel."

"I still say you should let me go get her," Nick said. "We'll lock her in a cell, and she won't be able to do any more damage."

Frost rolled his eyes. "One of her little party tricks is to burn things at a glance, vampires included. Even if you prove to be an actual threat to her, that'll only make her stop fighting hand-to-hand, and start up the magic f$king barbecue."

"Who said I'd take her head-on?"

"You can't sneak up behind her," Deacon said with an exasperated sigh, "because she'll instantly know you're there. I don't know what her limit is, but I think it could be anything up to a mile. And anyway, I thought you didn't like girls?" he teased. "Just don't worry about it, man, I've got it covered."

"Then what _are_ we doing now?"

Frost got up from his seat and led the other vampire out. "We're gonna check out our other problem, these f$king hounds from hell. Let _me_ worry about the girl."

"Jackpot," Caitlyn said as she found a storage closet, with assorted uniforms and raincoats inside. She left the door open and left it to the two newly freed ladies to organise clothes for themselves.

She sighed as she cut another one down. "This is gonna take forever," she said, laying a young teenage boy on the white tiled floor. She put a hand to his forehead, glancing up at the broken camera. "I don't have forever."

She brought the boy back to full consciousness and helped him stand, directing him to the closet. "No questions, I don't have time" she said to him. She looked over at Henry, who had exchanged her coat for a grey raincoat. "Anything yet?"

"Just crackling, miss." Henry said. "I thought I heard voices a moment ago, but it was just for a second, I didn't get a chance to say anything."

"Keep trying. I am going to need help to get all of you guys out of here," Caitlyn said, putting her coat back on and then cutting down two more men, her blade pointed away so she wouldn't accidentally nick them as they fell against her arms, and laying them down simultaneously.

"Where _is_ here?" Henry asked, "I mean, if I get through, where do I tell them to come?"

"Bacto Industries, in the northern part of the city," Caitlyn answered, closing her eyes to try and heal both men at the same time.

"Miss," one of the women called out. "There are guns here, in the closet."

"Good. Shh." Caitlyn said shortly, trying to concentrate. Both men gasped, opening their eyes. "Don't panic," Caitlyn said. "We're going to get you out of here." She stood and went to the closet. "Anyone know how to accurately fire a shotgun?"

One of the men on the ground coughed, and raised an arm to indicate that he did. "I do." He had a no 1 haircut, a slightly beaked nose, a strong-set mouth and grey eyes. He looked young, probably twenty-something. He looked down at himself.

"Hey, I had a cut leg before," he said in surprise, getting to his feet.

"Well, lucky you," Caitlyn said, handing him a shotgun and a pair of pants. "I guess I healed everything when I brought you back." She looked around to address everyone who was conscious. "Now I don't want to hear your life stories, people, or how you got into this mess. I'd like to be sympathetic but I don't have time. I can't stand here explaining the whole situation, but I'll say this. You were prisoners, and technically we still are prisoners until we can get out of here. See those people in the bags? You were all up there. Unless you want to go back you will listen to what I have to say, because I know what's going on and I am your best shot of getting out of here.

"Don't ask what I'm going to do to these others or what I did to you to bring you back, it's too hard to explain. The men who imprisoned you are not human, I repeat they aren't human and will not hesitate at slitting your throat and harvesting the blood. If we run into trouble I am going to kill them. Again, don't ask, but believe that it's necessary. You," she nodded to the guy with the shotgun. "What's your name?"

"Damien."

"Damien, you aim at the head or the heart, you understand?" she asked. She handed a sidearm to the other young man, who was a looked older than Damien but still in great physical shape, a blonde with close-cropped hair, a cleft chin and blue eyes. He and Damien were wearing grey pants, but nothing else. "Same to you. If you see them disintegrate after you shoot them, that's normal, and a good thing. I will explain why later."

"They're vampires, aren't they?" the blonde asked.

"Yes they are." She nodded to him, not taking the time to ask how he knew about vampires. There were humans who'd come in contact with them and survived, but they usually kept quiet.

"I am a professional vampire hunter," she explained, "if you can call it a profession. I only expect you guys to fight if they get past me. Can you check the bullets, see if they're silver?" It was possible that they would be, because these vampires were at war with purebloods and also seemed to be at odds with the vampire hounds.

"Mine aren't." The blonde said.

"You can still use the gun." Caitlyn said. "Silver or not, bullets hurt like hell, so you should be able to deter a vamp, even if you can't kill him."

She took out her knife again and cut open another plastic case. An older woman fell into her arms, and the already conscious women were ready at her side with a coat. Caitlyn handed the knife to the boy. "Start cutting down the others, but don't cut the tubes off their arms until I'm ready to revive them, or they'll die." The boy did as he was told, and Caitlyn closed her eyes to revive the woman.

Half a minute later the woman was being sat up and covered by the two younger women, and Caitlyn stood to go to the next person.

She counted the people left to revive. Eighteen. "Dammit," Caitlyn said. She looked around. "Something's not right," she said.

"None of this is right!" exclaimed one of the women.

"No," Caitlyn said, hurrying to revive the next person. "Someone should have come to try and stop us by now."

"Well, just keep going," Damien said nervously, his shotgun aimed at the closed door.

"Is that where you came in?" the blonde man asked, nodding towards the missing hatch in the top half of the back wall. Below it was a vent cover lying on the floor where Caitlyn had let it fall.

"Yep," Caitlyn answered simply, her eyes closed and her concentration on the young girl in her arms. The little girl, perhaps twelve years old, coughed and spluttered into wakefulness. Running low on clothes, Caitlyn wrapped her in an improvised toga of opaque plastic.

"Damien, keep watch on the door," she ordered, then looked over at the blonde man and the three women. "What's your name?" she pointed at the man.

"Jack."

"Jack, you're the tallest here," Caitlyn said. "Lift the little girl and the kid up into the hatch first, then start sending up these three and anyone else I revive." She skipped over to the boy and took the knife. "Go." She ordered. "Do not go far without me." She cautioned everyone. "We may have to rush out of here, so I might not be able to save everyone. Take the first passage on the right then keep going forward."

Another man and another woman were lying beneath her palms when she wrinkled her forehead in thought. "Damien…" she said, trying to figure out what it was while still healing the people.

"What?" he answered. The others were only just inside the hatch.

Caitlyn opened her eyes as the dark haired, moustached guy sighed deeply and opened his eyes, as did the redheaded woman. Caitlyn yanked them to their feet and shoved the last two raincoats at them. "Go!" she yelled. "Everyone, go now!"

She pushed the two new people to the hatch, and Jack pulled them in from inside. "What is it?" he asked as he worked.

"They know I'm here, but there is no one else on this floor, at all, even though there were before," Caitlyn explained, grabbing one last person and carrying her, wrapped in the plastic, over to the vent. "I think we're being sealed in."

"Then we have to leave the rest," Jack said, reaching out for the new girl.

"I know." Caitlyn said angrily, but he realised she wasn't angry at any of them, "I'll come back later if I can, but if we wait any longer, maybe none of us will get out. Get in Damien." She ordered, grabbing the shotgun and pushing him in before he could protest. When he turned around she tossed the gun into the vent beside him and sealed them in.

"Hey wait!" he said.

"Don't leave us!" cried one of the women.

"Stay together," Caitlyn instructed, "and once you get outside _leave the premises_! As fast as you can. Don't bother going to the police, these people have a lot of connections. I'll track you down again tonight if I can. If not, try to wait until sunrise to make your move. Jack, you're in charge."

"Miss!" she heard from deeper within the ventilation system. "Voices! I can hear them on your ear-thingy."

"Talk to them, Henry." Caitlyn ordered. "Tell them where you are, how many of you there are and as much of the situation as you can. My name is Caitlyn, tell them I'm still in the building where the van went – Bacto Industries."

"Caitlyn, come with us," Jack said, "or let me stay and help you out, I've got military experience."

"I hate responsibility, Jack," Caitlyn answered, walking toward the door, "and right now, these people are yours. Don't disappoint me. I'm gonna go make you guys a distraction."

She left the room and closed the door behind her. The hallway she was in was dark, and bare. There were grey tiles beneath her boots, and dark blue walls stretching forward. There was no movement, nor did Caitlyn sense anyone other than those above or below her floor. She was on the second level above the ground. The windows were all covered with sheets of metal on the inside, Rollerguards or something, which meant no sun exposure during the day, but outwardly the dark windows wouldn't look suspicious. During the night they should have been open, but Caitlyn knew they were trying to keep her in.

Ahead of her, the hall ended in an elevator and a door to the stairway. The elevator would not respond and all doors on her floor were locked, including the one to the stairs.

Caitlyn smirked and shook her head. "Who do they think they're dealing with?" she muttered to herself.

The door locks operated on a key card system. Caitlyn went to one knee before the door so that the electronic lock was at eye level. It was a simple matter to fry the circuitry in the small device.

Caitlyn started her distraction by loudly kicking in the door and she quickly went down the stairs.

Another armed guard was coming up the stairs. Caitlyn grabbed the inner rail and swung herself forward to land a vicious kick in the face. He flew back against the wall. Caitlyn grabbed his gun as she ran over the top of him, leaving him alive, conscious and pissed off, to raise the alarm.

Again, the gun was loaded with silver bullets. Though she didn't normally carry any guns – she preferred close-combat – she knew how to use them. Caitlyn smiled, tucking it into the back of her pants as she kicked open the first-floor door. The guard was following her down the stairs and she stepped aside as he lunged at her so that he fell through the open doorway.

The room before her looked like a normal reception area. It was fairly empty, save for a human receptionist at the front desk, whose back was turned. Caitlyn could see the entrance further out the front.

"Hey you," Caitlyn called out, as she shot the fallen guard in the head. The woman turned around and pulled a gun from beneath her desk. Before she could fire, Caitlyn shot her arm, making her drop the gun.

"Now," Caitlyn said to her, walking forward. "I don't miss, sweetie, so don't be stupid. All I want to know is where your loudest alarm is."

The girl was clutching her arm and moaning. "The smoke alarm, there's one up above the elevator." She sobbed.

"Thanks," Caitlyn said brightly. "One more favour. I'm a little low, so I'm gonna borrow some of your energy." She grabbed and lifted the receptionist up into the air by her throat, and closed her own eyes, breathing in deeply and concentrating. The receptionist stopped struggling after a moment and slumped, letting go of her arm. Caitlyn let her fall to the ground and smiled. "That's much better. You'll live … _traitor_." Caitlyn severely disliked familiars.

She looked up above the elevator and burned a hole in the wall just below the sensor. A very loud, constant bleeping noise rewarded her efforts. She picked up the receptionist's gun and walked toward the front doors.

There were lots of crates stacked in the warehouse, and a few vampires were busy checking the contents, while others watched the creature that had been brought back in the van.

Deacon Frost stood over the dog, whose paws had been secured to a table within the warehouse. A bald vampire in a white coat stood over the table with a collection of surgical instruments on a tray at his side.

Deacon was asking questions of the scientist. "So what type of blood do these guys prefer?"

"We're not sure, sir. The vampires that have been attacked never survive, and neither do the humans. We're not sure if these creatures can cause the vampire infection or any mutated variation of it, because any victims suffer far too much damage to be able to turn anyway."

Deacon nodded, and, on impulse, made a small cut on his finger and held it over the prone creature's mouth. The jagged teeth snapped together as the thing became alert, and agitated. It whined and growled. The noise it made was moderate at first, then as it was denied any more of Frost's blood, it emitted a loud, high-pitched whine.

"Well, I guess he liked that," Deacon said, flexing his finger. He suddenly inhaled sharply, and blinked in surprise.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"The girl, she just got a huge burst of energy," Deacon said with a smile, enjoying the feeling. He looked down at his finger, which was now completely healed, more quickly than usual. "Mmm," he said, absently licking his lips. "I want some more of her blood," he muttered to himself. He looked back up at the scientist. "Find out what you can," he ordered. He took a step backward, toward the exit.

"You're going to deal with the girl now?" Nick asked.

Frost just smiled, not answering as he glanced back at the creature.

The creature jerked against the chains that held it down, desperately trying to free itself, still growling in frustration, and every few seconds it let out another high-pitched yowl. The vampires, who had better hearing than humans, winced.

"Shut it up, would you?" Nick said.

"I agree with Nick, now would you tie its mouth shut or something, please?" Frost said, fumbling in his coat pocket for the now-ringing phone. "What now?" he answered.

He listened for a minute, his face screwing up with displeasure as heard what was apparently bad news. "This way?" he asked. He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "No, I'm betting our little captive here gave him the address." He said. "No, you idiot, the girl you were supposed to follow, not the monster we found. I can't talk right now, because apparently, as you've just informed me, we have a Daywalker heading in our direction." He snapped the phone shut with a huff.

"All right, people," he addressed everyone in the warehouse. "Blade is on his way here with his band of Daywalker-wannabes. The one who kills or captures him takes Nick's place as my second-in-command. " Nick looked affronted at this order. "What? You wanna keep your job, prove yourself useful and stop Blade yourself." Nick huffed and left the building.

"Hey, Frost!" Caitlyn called out, making her appearance at an open window near the ceiling, far out of reach. The ground was about two stories below, they had to shoot her to get to her. "I'm afraid that Blade isn't going to be the worst of your problems," she said seriously.

Frost quickly held a hand up to stop those vampires reaching for their guns. "Don't shoot her!" He turned back to Caitlyn. "Don't you think you're over-estimating yourself, kitten? You weren't doing so well last night, if you recall, and now you're outnumbered."

"You were lucky, Frost," she said with a mocking smile, "but I wasn't referring to myself when I said you've got problems other than Blade."

"Please, call me D." Deacon said with a grin, as he pretended to make light conversation with the huntress. "And do tell, what exactly is my new problem?"

"That thing on the table there?" she said, indicating the creature with a nod of her head in its direction. "There are more of them. And unless I miss my guess, that howling it was doing is drawing more of them to us."

Frost's expression grew serious. "How many of them?" he asked.

Caitlyn shrugged, her expression deceptively unconcerned. "You know, I'm really not sure, but I'm willing to bet that it's more than you can handle, even _with_ my blood."

Frost growled as he turned back to the creature and shot it in the head. It gave a short, surprised grunt in its last second of existence. The vampire scientist looked surprised and annoyed at the loss of his test subject.

"Lock this place down!" Frost ordered.

"Shit!" Caitlyn exclaimed, glancing behind her. She threw herself into the warehouse, landing easily on her feet in a crouched position. She turned around to look back up at the window. A vampire tried to grab her from behind so she elbowed him in the midsection, and then she kicked him in the face for good measure. Her attention was still raised up to where she'd been.

A beast wedged itself into the opening she'd just occupied, trying to scramble in but not managing to get its massive bulk through the gap. A terrible scratching sound could be heard as its back paws scrabbled on the tin, and the wood framing the window began to splinter as it pushed through. Frost shot it in the head until it was destroyed.

The vampires scrambling to obey orders were too late, as they glimpsed a horde of the things headed toward the warehouse. Nonetheless, they tried to close the massive tin sliding doors. A few of them ran as the first creature leapt through the gap they failed to close in time. One landed on a workman's back, knocking him over, tearing into his shoulders and swishing its tail.

The sound of screaming and growling filled the air as perhaps a dozen of the creatures shoved their way into the warehouse. A scrabbling, scratching sound indicated that there were others on the roof as well. The creatures were outnumbered more than two to one, but with their massive size, strength and speed, the vampires were the ones who were overmatched.

Caitlyn didn't know what to fight first, she was surrounded by enemies. Concentrating on just one side would mean the remaining side would turn on her, so she settled for destroying anything that went after her, trying to alternate between beasts and vampires.

The guns, more powerful than human strikes, came in handy to penetrate the thick skin of the beasts. Unfortunately the beasts were fast, it was hard to get an accurate shot to either the head or the heart. Caitlyn managed it however, and another one became dust. Vampires were being torn apart all around her, it was very quickly becoming a bloodbath.

Caitlyn swore as she felt more of them on the premises, her only solace being that the humans she'd freed were still in the building's ducts like she'd told them, out of the way. Well, this was certainly a good distraction.

She ducked as a creature leapt for her, hitting the tin wall behind her. She shot it while it was stunned, and killed a vampire that was running for her with a crowbar in hand. 'Amateur', she thought. Another vampire grabbed her wrists, preventing her from shooting him. She also couldn't use magic on him, at least not effectively, but he would not have realised that. She head-butted him and kicked him in the groin. As his head lowered in the act of him stooping to clutch himself, Caitlyn kicked him in the face so hard that he back-flipped, landing on his face and front.

She lost the guns in the next second when one of the dogs knocked her over. She got her feet beneath it and heaved it off her before it could bite her, but she received a nasty slash on her arm from its claws. She pinned it to the ground with vines and drove her knife into its skull with both hands.

A couple of vampires had already been destroyed due to heads or hearts removed. She could see already that the beasts were winning. The vampires might have had a chance if they'd been organised, but they were mostly running around like idiots, or not using the right weapons to fight, like swinging crowbars and throwing crates.

There were dogs guarding the entrance, she couldn't see a way out. She readied herself when she saw one of the hell-dogs crouched, stalking slowly toward her. Just before it could jump at her it was hit by the grey van. The rear doors were open, and the van paused, just in front of her – an invitation. Even without being able to sense him, Caitlyn didn't need to guess to know who was behind the wheel. A rescue was a rescue, so Caitlyn climbed in and closed the doors behind her.

The wheels screeched and the van sped toward the doors, ramming into the guard-dogs and slamming through the partially opened exit. As the van left the premises, Caitlyn shuffled through the rear toward the front. There was a large grey dividing wall separating the front seats from the rest of the van, which had probably helped the drivers ignore it when there was a huge creature thrashing around in the back. All the seats had been removed, again to accommodate the creature.

A small rectangular window appeared in the wall when a panel was slid across from the front. Some kind of spraying canister was shoved through and the panel was shut again.

"Shit," Caitlyn said, her voice muffled when she brought her arm up to cover her mouth. The gas spread through the enclosed space, and despite herself, Caitlyn felt herself growing tired before she could reach the rear doors. The halothane did its job, and Caitlyn slumped to the floor, unconscious.


	9. Peace in Death

"F$k…Me…Up-Side-Down.." King said, as they heard the commotion inside the building and saw the hell-dogs that were still on the roof.

"Colourful," Kevin said wryly, his attention likewise riveted.

"Are you still in the building?" Abby asked, her fingers pressed to her ear-piece. "Stay there, keep everyone inside, it's dangerous outside right now."

"Mass extermination, you up for it Blade?" King asked.

"I'd suggest a bomb," Kevin said, "but Caitlyn might be inside."

Blade smiled sinisterly. He got out of the car and opened the boot. "UV bomb," he said with a smirk. "Not as effective as Day-star, but still a good party trick, no harm done to your friend."

He walked a few steps toward the warehouse, pulled the pin and threw the device through the open doors into the warehouse.

A few seconds passed.

"Uh, Blade," Kevin said, "it didn't w-" He was cut off as a bright, light with a pale blue tinge seemed to explode out of the entrance and the open windows, not doing any visible damage. The dogs on the roof escaped its effects, but Blade jumped up to deal with them.

"Lets go get those people," Abby said. "Caitlyn 'll know we're here once we're close enough, she'll track us down."

The Nightstalkers headed off toward the building. Inside, they found the sprawled receptionist behind her desk. Kevin knelt down to check her. King shot at the smoke alarm, effectively killing the annoying sound it had been making.

"She's breathing," Kevin reported. He noticed the tattoo on the back of her wrist and he let her fall. "She's also a familiar."

"Is she wounded or something?" Abby asked. King leaned over for a closer look.

"Gunshot wound to the arm, but I doubt that made her unconscious, and there's no head trauma." King said, with a puzzled look on his face.

"Caitlyn," Kevin explained, standing up straight. "You know how we always say that she's more human than vampire?" he ran a hand through his hair as he explained, a gesture of his discomfort with the subject. He knew that Caitlyn preferred to be thought of as a human. "Well, she's kind of an energy vampire. She can suck it right out of you, but she doesn't have to wound you to do it. It apparently makes her magic easier to perform, and it's a quick way to rejuvenate herself. She usually doesn't need to do it, so she must have been doing a lot of magic tonight."

"Has she ever done it to anyone other than a familiar?" Abby asked, a little concerned.

"No." Kevin said. "Well… Once on me when she needed to do a huge explosion, but she asked for my permission first. I don't think she can do it on non-humans, though. You can recover fully, it doesn't leave any bad side-effects except for a brief weakness."

"Well, no problem then." King said, brushing his hands as though dusting them off. "Let's go track down Caitlyn's refugees. They said they were in the ducts somewhere. Keep an eye out for Caitlyn too."

"'Might wanna use these," Kevin said, breaking open a locked drawer to reveal key cards. He handed them out. "I'd suggest _not_ using the elevators in case there's still a vamp or familiar at the switchbox. With that in mind, I call this, the second and the third floor."

"Fourth and fifth." Abby quickly piped in.

"Aww hell," King groaned. The last three floors were his.

"After you, King," Abby said with a smile. "You might want to get a head start."

King shook his head in disgust as he jogged across to the stairwell, already opened thanks to Caitlyn. The other two shared a quiet chuckle before following. King called back to them, "I guess you've got the bottom floors as well, Kevin."

"What?"

"There are at least two basement levels too," King said with an evil grin "and since you seem to want the lowest floors, they're yours."

"Damn."

The third floor had yielded only a few vampires on computers at their desks. Their floor hadn't been locked down and they'd been ordered to continue working. They got up to stop Kevin as he appeared in their cubicles, but each received a bullet in the head or the chest.

He had decided to take his highest floor first, so once he'd finished each floor he'd only have to go downward. He went down the stairwell and opened the door leading to the second floor. The dark hallway greeted him. The light switches were at his end, so he flicked them on. When he looked in the offices and other rooms he noted all the sheeting covering the windows; there hadn't been any on the third floor, or at least they hadn't been shut.

He silently walked to the room marked 'storage closet', and found the room with all of the unconscious people in it. They had heard from Henry that Caitlyn had rescued as many people as she could from this room. There was nothing that Kevin could do for those still left behind.

He was sighing softly when the gun he held at his side was wrenched from his grip by an attacker behind him. He turned to see Nick as the vampire swung a punch at his face. Kevin went down hard, and shook his head to try and clear away the stars now hovering around it. Nick took one of his ankles in his massive fist and swung Kevin off the ground, letting him go so he crashed into and knocked over a few of the bodies.

Nick removed the ammunition from the hand gun and threw it aside as he stalked toward Kevin. Kevin reached for his other gun but it too was wrenched from his grip and Nick hit him again, causing blood to run from a split lip. Nick wrapped a hand around Kevin's throat and lifted him into the air, taking him over to a wall to push him up against it. He leaned forward and licked up the trail of blood on Kevin's chin.

"Ugh," Kevin grunted with disgust, using both feet to kick Nick in the guts. The vampire stumbled back, letting him go. "No thanks, you're not my type."

"But you're mine," Nick said with a creepy grin as Kevin tried to side-step away, "I like the pretty-faced ones."

He ran at Kevin, who grabbed his arm and flipped him over his shoulder. Kevin pulled up his pants leg and took out his knife. He couldn't see where Nick had thrown his second gun. From the ground Nick kicked Kevin's legs out from under him. Both men scrambled back to their feet.

"Come on!" Kevin challenged, his knife out in front of him.

Nick grinned and lifted Kevin's gun up, aiming it at Kevin's stomach. "How long would you like to endure bleeding to death?" he asked.

'Uh oh,' Kevin thought.

A shot rang out, but it was Nick who staggered. He ran as more shots were aimed in his direction. Kevin ducked to the floor as Nick wildly shot behind him as he darted from the room. A few of the 'donors' were hit, but Kevin was all right.

"Help us out of here, man," a voice said from the vents.

"Who are you?" Kevin said, gathering up his fallen gun and retrieving the bullets.

"I'm Jack," the voice replied, and Kevin could just make out the guy's face. "Your friend shut us in here. We had gone further in, but I came back when I heard the fighting. I thought it might have been that girl, Caitlyn."

Kevin reached up to the edges of the cover, running his blade edge behind to loosen it. "How long ago was she here?"

"Maybe thirty minutes ago," Jack answered, pushing on the cover from the other side. "She figured she was keeping us safe in here."

"I'm betting you didn't see what was outside," Kevin said as they pried the cover loose, "but trust me, you were." He put his hand up to his ear. "Abby, King, I've got the people Caitlyn freed, we're on the second floor." He paused and tried to look past Jack into the venting passage. "How many are there with you?" he asked Jack.

"Nine of us are awake, but there's one in here that there wasn't time to revive."

Jack climbed down and called back to the others. "Come on out."

One by one the other eight people emerged from the vent, Henry and one of the women pulling along the plastic wrapped girl. Kevin went to retrieve his gun and its ammunition.

"This one's pulse is fading," Henry said, as Jack helped to set her down on the floor. "She's been away from the machines for too long, and being in a coma, her body can't function on it's own."

"Well, Caitlyn's not here," Kevin said apologetically, "I don't know where she is, she can't save her."

"You mean you can't do what that other girl did for us?" Damien asked, and Kevin shook his head.

"Should we hook her back up?" a woman asked.

"It might be kinder to let her go, rather than prolong her existence here as an unwilling blood donor," Kevin said. "She can't feel anything, her brain is already dead." He looked around at the rest of the suspended people. "Our normal policy is to unhook them and let them die peacefully. Caitlyn's the only one of us who can bring them back, but we have no idea where she is, she might not get back in time before the vamps come back to retake their building. There may never be a rescue for these people save what we can do for them."

Kevin looked around the room and spotted a hidden drawer disguised as a wall panel. He soberly approached it and found the catch, lowering it to reveal the controls within. He sighed and put his finger to his earpiece to improve the reception. "Guys, has _anyone _seen Caitlyn here?"

He received only negative answers. He glanced back at the people who were already saved. One by one they nodded, and Kevin flipped off all of the switches, cutting the power to the life support systems.

"Rest in peace." Jack said.

Without another word the group left the room, and Kevin escorted them from the building.


	10. Propositions

Caitlyn woke with a jerk, and shook her head to try and clear it. She was sitting on the ground, her hands secured behind her back around a metal pole. She looked up and saw that it stretched up to the ceiling. Her coat, boots and all of her weapons were missing, and she'd lost her hair scrunchie somewhere, so her hair was hanging loose over her shoulders. There was sawdust all over the cement floor, she was in some kind of factory, probably in the basement.

The lights weren't on, but Caitlyn had no trouble seeing that the room was fairly bare of equipment. There were a few cardboard boxes stacked up against the wall, and a simple wooden table with a couple of chairs. There was trash all over the floor, and an old mattress shoved into a corner with a few tattered, stained cushions. Hanging from the ceiling was a pull-chain light switch and a hanging electric bulb. She couldn't make out any colours, but the room seemed pretty drab.

She noticed that the stinging in her arm had receded, and when she moved it experimentally she realised it had been bandaged. _Why the hell would a vampire care if I was injured?_ She looked around but didn't see or hear anyone. She didn't sense anyone either, but she couldn't completely trust her extra senses where Frost was involved.

She couldn't feel any new wounds on her body, he hadn't bitten or hurt her, but it was possible he'd fed from the wound before fixing it. She leaned her head back against the pole with a sigh, wondering if he'd offer any kind of explanation when he turned up. She closed her eyes again, and tugged against what felt like steel shackles on her hands. He must have known that normal handcuffs wouldn't hold her, as she was strong enough to snap them open. She couldn't use her arms, so she couldn't use her magic.

She wondered how long she'd been out of it. Some remnant of her vampire heritage gave her the certainty that the sun was rising at any moment, even though she was underground in the dark. By now the Nightstalkers would presume her missing. They would track her down, she was certain of it. She wondered how they had managed with the hell-beasts. She wondered about Jack and the others. She wondered again what Frost had planned for her, why she had been hidden away down there.

Her eyes snapped open as she felt movement outside. She moved her head as she concentrated, creasing her brow with thought as she figured out how many were there and what they were. Mixed company, she determined; vampires and humans, a group of them. They were inside the factory, coming down toward her. Caitlyn got to her feet, using the pole against her back for support and balance. The vamps were cutting it close, the night was almost over.

She heard laughing as they came downstairs, the click clack of heels and the murmuring voices. There were both women and men, but she couldn't tell which was which species. All she'd ever needed to know before was if they were cold-blooded, and then she'd destroy them if they were. It didn't matter what else they were, what they looked like. They all equalled a pile of ash in the end, so she'd never trained her senses to differentiate, save for learning the individual signatures of her human friends.

She moved around the pole so she could see the door. There was light around the edges, marred by shadows as someone stood outside. The door opened, throwing dim light across the basement floor, not quite reaching Caitlyn's feet.

"Come on in ladies," the man in the doorway said, holding an arm out and looking back at his companions. He had dark hair cut just below his chin, slicked back. He was wearing an evening coat and a blue shirt with black pants, and he was smiling charmingly. He was a vampire.

"Basement parties are cool," said a brunette girl as she came in. She was wearing tight black jeans, heeled boots and a purple shirt under a denim jacket. Her black handbag was hanging off her arm, and she squinted into the darkness. "How come I don't hear any music? And why's it all dark?"

"It's a surprise, Jackie" said another male as he escorted another girl in on his arm. This man was also a vampire, blonde-haired, with a raised ridge in his nose indicating that it had been broken at one point in his life. He wore a black shirt over a white vest and had black pants on. The girl with him was also blonde and had on a pink long-sleeved knit top that hung low to leave her shoulders bare. She had a long black skirt and heels. She had silver star earrings hanging down the sides of her face and wore a silver chain with a star on it.

The women were both human, and seemed to be unaware of the danger they were in. The blonde vampire who'd entered the room had seen Caitlyn and looked confused for a second before grinning. The other vamp closed the door behind them and then also caught sight of the captive in their hide-out.

"Hey, turn on the light!" Jackie complained.

The light cord was near Caitlyn. She had to go on tiptoes, but she reached up with her other bare foot and gripped the cord between her toes, tugging it to bring light to the room. She didn't know what else she could do to help them while she was chained up. The girls saw the bare room and the quiet woman at the building's support pole. Caitlyn turned a little so they could see her chains.

"Hey, I'm not into that kinky shit!" the blonde complained.

"Come on, Leah," Jackie said nervously, "lets go, there's no party here."

The dark-haired vamp was standing in front of the door, one hand casually resting on the door frame. He smiled as the girls turned around and saw they'd been trapped.

"These guys are psychopathic killers." Caitlyn said to the girls, and in response they immediately backed away toward her. Jackie started tugging unsuccessfully on Caitlyn's chains to free her. Leah demanded to be released.

"Mark," the blonde vampire said to his partner, ignoring the girls, "stay by the door. I'm going to see who this new girl is." He approached Caitlyn, who gave him stare for stare, refusing to be intimidated. He slapped Jackie away and took Caitlyn's face in his right hand. Leah went over to her fallen friend and they both started crying with fear.

"Who are you?" the blonde man asked Caitlyn.

"Get these chains off and I'll tell you," Caitlyn replied coolly.

"Tempting," he said, "I like it when they can struggle, but I've got the other two for that." He leaned in to bite into her neck.

Caitlyn kneed him in the groin and kicked him in the face. "How do you like that?"

"Whoa, whoa!" The door had opened and Frost appeared. "Excuse me, but this is _my_ guest." He passed Mark and crossed the floor to the blonde, pushing him out of the way. "They hurt you, kitten?" he asked Caitlyn, staying just out of range of her legs.

Caitlyn gave him a scathing look.

"Hey, she's on our territory, she's ours." Mark said, approaching Frost. "So get out of here."

"Oh, you don't want her," Frost said, "she'd be too much trouble for you, trust me."

The women took the opportunity of the unguarded door to run off.

Frost walked around Caitlyn and unlocked the shackles. She hid her surprise at his actions and promptly burned both of the vampires as they jumped for her and Frost.

She crossed her arms and faced Frost, ignoring the ashes wafting around their feet. "Are you going to give me some kind of explanation?"

"A 'thank you' would be nice," Frost said sarcastically. "I want your help. I tied you up coz I didn't want you going anywhere while I was gone."

"Right," Caitlyn said with obvious disbelief.

"Hey, I let you go didn't I? I didn't _touch_ you except to get you in here and to fix up that scratch, which, I might point out, I didn't have to do."

Caitlyn sighed. "What do want, and why do you think I would help you?"

"Look, you and I both want to destroy these new dog-things that are hunting both our kinds." Frost explained. "I also want you to help me take care of the purebloods. Both are things that you would do on your own anyway, but I'm willing to help you."

"And what do you want in return?"

Frost regarded her for a moment. "You're one of us, you're a half-blood just like me, only I was turned to become a half-blood and you were one from birth. We both know what it's like to be human, though that was a long time ago for me, and we know what it's like to have the power of immortals. I want you to join us. Think about it."

"I don't feed from people," Caitlyn said.

"Sure you do," Frost said. "You just don't take blood. Besides, aren't you the least bit curious about our world? You grew up with humans, right? You're severely prejudiced. You owe what you are, what you can do, to a vampire."

"You're killers."

"So are you." Frost countered.

"You killed my mother," Caitlyn said.

"Uh, _no_, I was actually dead at the time." Frost corrected her. "It wasn't like I asked for her to be killed, that is not my fault, and I had nothing to do with it. They didn't even have to bleed her dry, but I had no control over that."

"You bit me the other night, why should I trust you not to try again?"

"You came after me first, and I retaliated. What did you expect?" Frost reasoned. He was trying to give her a sincere look, again trying to hold her in place with his intense stare.

Caitlyn regarded him with lingering suspicion.

"Let me get this straight," she said, "you want me to stop hunting you and yours, and instead take out _your_ enemies for you. You, you, you. And why me? I hear Blade turned you down last time you asked _him_, and it turned out you were trying to screw him over with a bogus deal so he'd be an easy target. If I agree to this I bet you'll be asking me to go after him next."

"Blade was an idiot, and we wouldn't have had to try and bleed him dry if he'd joined us. The ritual never needed to be fatal for him, but _he_ decided to be our enemy. He's my problem, I wouldn't try to make him yours. But fine," Frost said, hands up in mock-surrender. "You're free to leave at any time. Your stuff is in that box over there. Just… think about what I said."

Caitlyn glanced at the box and walked over to it. Sure enough, her stuff was in there.

"It's a pity though," Frost said, still behind her, "I kinda liked you, kitten."

Caitlyn didn't reply. She re-belted her knife to her waist, and her stakes to her thigh. Frost picked up her coat and held it up for her to slip her arms into, to which she didn't comment. She put her injured arm in first, noting with a grimace the slash in her sleeve. These jackets weren't cheap, especially when you didn't have an income. She put her boots back on and laced them up.

Without another look at Frost she walked to the door. She went up the stairs into the factory. Old woodwork machinery was pushed up against the walls, and all of the windows were boarded up. There were odd planks of wood all over the floor, and there was an abundance of sawdust. It was a good thing she didn't have any allergies.

There was a padlock and chain securing the inside of a door, which Caitlyn promptly ripped away as soon as she reached it. It was designed to keep out humans during the day, not to keep in vampires or people like her. Sunlight streamed in as she pulled open the creaky door. She closed her eyes for a second, and then blinked them open to adjust to the change of light.

The girls were long gone, but Caitlyn could see Frost's van parked nearby in a small car park. She could see a couple of stores across the road, and felt humans moving around in their homes beyond. It looked like she was near the outskirts of a small town. Why had Frost taken her so far away, just to discuss business?

She buttoned up her coat to conceal her weapons, should someone get close enough to see her. She climbed to the roof of the factory and took a good look around. Small town in front, dusty wasteland behind. She'd better find someone to ask where she was, and then maybe borrow a phone. She couldn't be that far from the city, Frost had only had a few hours to drive her.

She jumped down from the roof with a dull thud on the dirt below her boots. She realised that she had started to figure out Frost's signature. It was almost like a mortal black hole, a sense of nothing where there should at least have been something. It was like his presence was marginally colder than his surroundings, or something like that. It was hard to notice, but if she was looking for it she could find it. The thing was, she could feel his lack of presence around the back of the van. Outside. During the day. Caitlyn knew for a fact that he wasn't wearing sun-block.

She jogged around and saw him pushing a little box into the back of the van. He shut the doors and turned around to look at her. She didn't say anything, she let her confused expression ask the question.

"I figured something out since I came back." Frost explained. "'Feed from a Daywalker, and you become one, as long as their blood remains within you.' Don't worry, I haven't figured out how to make it permanent, and it's not like I'm expecting you to let me take any more."

"I'm not a Daywalker."

"No?" Frost said, his eyebrows raised. "You have the strengths of vampires, the gift of being able to walk in daylight, and although you don't take blood from humans, you still feed on them for their energy. Like Blade, you can walk among the humans. The only things that make you different from Blade is your immunity to the thirst, the magic, and the strange traits of your blood. And a few other obvious things, like he's a guy and you're not. He's a pain in the ass and you're… not so much a pain in the ass, yet. There's also the fact that Blade had a human father and you didn't."

Caitlyn crossed her arms. "For someone who never met me before last night you seem to know a lot about me, especially considering I'm not well-known. You're the only vampire I've met that isn't a pile of ash right now."

"Well," Frost began hesitantly, "I made it my business to find out who brought me back. Your father and his living blood donor weren't too well known, but there were some records, some rumours. And also some mention of you two in the blood prophecies. There's also the fact that the ritual to resurrect me used blood that was 50 identical to yours, and I now have both that and remnants of your blood running through me. It's given me a few immunities. You can't sense me, you can't burn me. I know things about you that even you don't."

"Such as?" Caitlyn demanded.

"I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise." Frost said with a smile. "But that would be another part of the deal. I'd help you discover everything you're capable of."

It was clear he wouldn't be saying anything more on that matter unless Caitlyn agreed to help him, which she was unwilling to do. She changed the subject.

"You delivered the knife personally, didn't you?"

Frost nodded. "And the rose. I was told you didn't even touch it."

"I don't accept gifts from strangers." Caitlyn retorted. "The knife was mine, though. What were you trying to do by returning it, freak me out?"

"Maybe a little, I couldn't help it." Frost grinned mischievously. "It was also an invitation. I knew you'd come and find me. As I said before, I want to show you our world. You can be a part of it. You should be a part of it."

Caitlyn looked away for a moment. She wondered why she'd let him talk so long, why she hadn't tried to kill him now that she had her weapons back. It was useless trying to burn him, she knew that, but why not attack him now? Why was she even pretending to consider what he was saying?

He was still a danger, he could do some serious damage in the daylight. It was her duty to stop him. What if he told others about her? There was no way they'd take her without a fight, she'd do anything to avoid becoming a 'donor', especially if it meant vampires could be on the rampage 24 hours a day. She glanced back at him and got the feeling he wasn't the type to share. She was getting a few feelings about him, actually. The type of guy he was, his motives, his likes.

"You haven't fed from anyone since the night before last, have you?" she guessed.

"Nope. I don't need to anymore, at least not for a while."

She was getting the weirdest sensation that she'd be safe with him. Maybe it was because he'd saved her life twice already, but it was still an irrational feeling to get about a vampire. He kept hinting that he was interested in her, other than professionally, especially if the night they'd met was anything to go by. Then again, that might have had more to do with the excitement of the chase and his predatory instincts.

She knew what she was feeling, though. Mostly uncertain, but underneath that, strangely fascinated.

"By the way," Frost said, "how's the bite wound?"

Caitlyn raised her eyebrows. "All healed," she said. On an impulse she unbuttoned the coat and lifted her shirt to reveal nothing but bare skin, unmarked by the bite.

Frost looked a little off-balance, but pleased. "In the spirit of our deal, or at least, the deal I hope you'll agree to," he said, looking back at her face, "I'm going to ask your permission."

"I'm not letting you bite me again." Caitlyn said, letting go of her shirt.

"No," Frost agreed. He put a hand up to her cheek. "I want to kiss you."

Caitlyn's mouth opened a little in surprise. She didn't resist when Frost moved tentatively forward, so he closed the short distance between them and put his free hand around her waist as he kissed her. His mouth was warmer than she remembered. She put her arms over his shoulders and kissed him back. The hand at her face had moved to the back of her head, and he was pulling her in hungrily, though not quite as aggressively as last time.

Then he let go of her head, but not her waist or lips. His free hand went behind him to the rear doors of the van. He jerked the handle and pulled the door open, gently guiding Caitlyn in with him.

She stopped and pulled away. "I can't."

"What?" he asked, running his hand through her hair.

"My friends are probably already on their way," she said. "I don't know what they'd think if they saw us doing this, but it definitely wouldn't be something good. I'm sorry, but I'm loyal to them. I won't fight them for you."

"I'm not going to ask you to," he assured her. "Besides, they can't find you unless we tell them where you are."

"Are you sure about that?" she asked with a disbelieving expression.

"You're thinking about that piece of metal in your arm, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Caitlyn said slowly. She glanced at her arm, the same one that had been slashed.

"It's long-gone, nowhere near here, plus it's broken."

"You took it?"

"Yeah, I didn't want to get interrupted," he explained, "it was already broken before I found it; the thing that got you got it too when it hurt you."

"Another reason for Caulder to get pissed off at me." Caitlyn sighed. "I suppose that's where you were before I woke up."

Frost didn't say anything, he leaned in to kiss her again. Caitlyn put her hands on his chest and gently pushed him back.

"You've cut me off from my people," she said, "do yours know that you're out here?"

"Just one person," Frost said, "and he's vampire, so he couldn't get here now during the day even if I wanted him to, although I told him to stay put."

"Here's the deal," Caitlyn decided, "you stop turning people, just concentrate on the dogs and purebloods. I won't kill any half-blood unless I catch them hunting. If you don't need to feed anymore, don't do it. I'm still on the humans' side."

"What about the rest of the deal?" Frost asked, his hand moving toward her face again. "You don't want to find out any more about our world?"

Caitlyn took his hand in hers and bit down hard on the back of it, enough to draw a little dark blood. "That's all there is to it, isn't there?" she asked. She licked the tiny traces off her bottom lip, grimacing a little at the bitter taste. "It's not really my thing," she told him, letting go of his hand, "but now we're a little closer to being even."

Frost looked a little taken aback. He shook his head a little with a half-smile, and then asked, "What about what we can learn about you from the Blood Texts?"

"So far I've been able to handle myself with what I already know. I'm not sure I want to know what some Ancient vampire wrote about me."

"All right."

"I'll be going now," Caitlyn said, taking a step back. "I'll give the others the deal. I doubt Blade will go for it, but I'll tell them anyway. I will stick to it while you do, even if the others don't. It shouldn't matter anyway right now, we're more focussed on finding the source of the hell-dogs."

"If you find that out, let me know. I'll send everyone I've got to destroy them."

"All right. For now, don't show your face near us again. I might not be inclined to kill you right now, but that won't mean anything to the others." She put her hand on the handle of her knife. "No more surprises, like leaving things for me to find. I'll let you know if the others decide to agree to the deal, although I don't think it's likely."

"Do you want a ride?" Frost asked.

"What did I just say? You shouldn't be anywhere near my people, especially not with me. They'll expect me to kill you and then question my loyalty because I haven't. Let me talk to them first, and I'll let you know. If things don't work out, we can go back to trying to kill each other. Now you might want to get out of here, I'm going to give them a call to pick me up."

"No good-bye kiss?" he asked with a roguish smile.

Caitlyn allowed herself a tiny smile, but shook her head.

"All right then." Frost said, taking a step away.

Caitlyn turned around and started walking toward civilisation.


	11. Changes

**Disclaimer: Blade and all characters from the movies do not belong to me. They followed me home. Can I keep them if I take really, really good care of them? **

**I am sorry that this took so long to post, but I was having some problems with the plot. I therefore had to write the next few chapters after this one all in a row to make sure the storyline would work.**

**AN: I kind of realised that Frost hasn't really been doing things that are characteristic of his personality. Hmm. How to fix this?**

Changes

888

It had been an hour since Frost had let Caitlyn go. He was still at the same town, sitting on the roof of his van. He was soaking up the sunlight, with a relaxed and contented smile on his face. He glanced up every few minutes, hoping that Caitlyn would take him up on his offer of a ride, though he didn't think she was around anymore, and wasn't bothered enough to make sure.

He stretched lazily, then sat up and ran a hand through his hair. He put his nose in the air, breathed in deeply, and licked his lips. He was hungry. He hopped down off the van and walked into the town, his boots scuffing on the dusty ground. He jiggled the keys in his hands as he pushed through a glass door leading into a diner. He couldn't believe he was actually craving a hamburger.

He remembered his promise to Caitlyn about not attacking humans – and decided to keep it for the time being – so he waited patiently in the line for the nice-looking old lady at the counter, rather than pushing everyone aside and just taking what he wanted.

He got his order, sat down, and took his first bite of real food in decades. It wasn't that vampires couldn't eat, just that there was no point, no inclination to. But what had once been tasteless to him was now delicious. He savoured the flavour of it with every bite, even finding the grease on the meat to his liking.

While he sat there he wondered whether Blade ever ate just for the fun of it. It also occurred to him that if Caitlyn didn't talk to him first then Blade would certainly try to exterminate him on sight. Hell, he might do it anyway. After all, he was responsible for the death of Blade's mother. What was it that she had called her son? Eric? His thoughts kept wandering as he finished off the burger and licked his fingers clean.

He looked around the diner, taking notice of the other customers. A few old timers, a young couple and a few families were seated around the table. He fleetingly gave the young redhead an appraising glance, and then continued looking around the room. He preferred feeding from women, but what he had said to Caitlyn was true. He didn't need to feed for the time being, especially because of that pick-me-up he'd taken from her arm while she was unconscious.

He wished he could have done more while she was out of it, but he needed her cooperation. It was why he hadn't pushed it when she'd refused to join him in the van. He didn't like it though, as he was used to just doing whatever he wanted. It burned him that he couldn't have her. No matter what she'd almost done with him, he knew she didn't fully trust him. She was right not to. He'd have her if he didn't need her, whether she wanted it or not.

He remembered his other girl, the blonde one that Karen Jenson had killed. She was cute, she was a fanatic about the cause, and best of all, she was willing to do anything for him. But he found that he didn't miss her much. Whatever he did, she just went along with it, and while it was nice to get what you wanted all the time, it became predictable. She didn't have an original thought in her brain. He knew he would have gotten bored with her eventually.

Caitlyn was something else. She may have been mostly human, but he didn't consider her to be anything like those pathetic blood-bags she protected. She was fiery, and tough. She could easily fit in with their world if she wanted to, and yet she was above it somehow. He stopped for a moment, and considered his last thought. He'd always thought of vampires as the superior race, but now it seemed like Daywalkers were at the top of the chain. And now he was one of them. He wondered how long it would last.

As La Magra, he'd felt invincible, unbeatable and stronger than ever, ready to destroy the world of men. But he hadn't been unbeatable, of course. Blade had killed him. But now, a creature of the same strength as a vampire and walking in the light, he felt a different kind of confidence in his abilities. Like this was how he should be, and even other vampires were now beneath him because he was not confined to their thirsts. He may have thirsted after Caitlyn, but that was lust and possessiveness. Nothing was vital to his survival any more; not blood, and not darkness. And because of that he started feeling less obsessive about humans, who were formerly his prey. They were still beneath him, but now he didn't really care if he destroyed them or not.


	12. Intercepted

**Intercepted**

888

"Are you okay?" Kevin asked. He had taken their jeep to pick Caitlyn up. She was standing by the road sign that marked the entrance of the town.

"I'll tell you about it on the way," Caitlyn said. "I just want to get out of here."

"Sure," Kevin said, holding the jeep steady as she climbed in. The top was off. He did a U-turn and started going back the way he had come. "You didn't say much on the phone," he commented.

"Yeah, well, a couple of the locals were hanging around, waiting to make their call."

"Fair enough. You look tired."

Caitlyn gave a low chuckle. "Yeah, and considering that I was unconscious for part of the night, that's kind of funny."

"We found the familiar you drained."

Caitlyn was quiet for a moment. "Were the guys freaked?"

"At first. But you've only done it to familiars… and me, so they didn't care too much."

"You know, I do feel kind of … off." Caitlyn said, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

"How do you mean?"

"Like maybe I'm the one being drained right now," Caitlyn said, "and my senses … humans are feeling kind of different to me now, but I can't put my finger on how."

"Me too?"

"Yeah, but not too much," Caitlyn replied quietly. "Maybe we should get Dr Jensen's unit to do another analysis of my blood."

"Might be a good idea. It just occurred to me that you weren't bitten by an ordinary vampire."

"The bite healed," Caitlyn reasoned. "But …" She paused, thinking about it.

"What?"

"No other victim of the hell-beast has survived, right?"

"Right. What do you mean 'no other', did you-"

"I got a nasty cut on my arm last night, from the claws. It didn't bite me though, so I don't know if that means anything."

"Well, we'll get it checked out. Try not to worry about it, okay."

"I have to speak to the guys," Caitlyn said decisively. "Frost gave us an interesting offer."

"You spoke to him last night?"

"He _kidnapped_ me last night," Caitlyn said with an amused smile, "but he also saved my life twice. I'd probably be dog food if he hadn't come back to get me out of there."

"Interesting," Kevin said, as though he didn't know what else to say. "What's the offer?"

"The hell-beasts are hunting vampires too. He doesn't know where they came from, but he's willing to use all his people to help us exterminate them. He'll even get his vampires to stop turning humans until it's over."

"And what does he want?"

"Just for our help with the hell-beasts and the purebloods. Who knows, they may be connected. He thinks I can learn to differentiate between purebloods and turned vampires, so we won't kill his kind as long as they stick to the truce."

"It won't last long, the vampires will get hungry after a little while."

"I know. I agreed to it for now, but I made it clear that I don't speak for the rest of you. I just thought it might be nice to not worry about most of the vampires while we try to get rid of the beasts, and once they're gone, we can either keep just hunting purebloods or end the truce there and go back to business as usual."

"Are you going to kill Frost?" Kevin asked abruptly.

Caitlyn thought for a moment. "Now right now. I know I should. Yesterday I would have said yes in a heartbeat. I don't completely trust him, but he said he knew something about me from the Blood Texts. He wants me to join him."

"What, you think that he actually likes you, or just needs you?"

"Both. At least, as much as a vampire can. But he's changing too."

"Did he make a move on you again?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah." Caitlyn replied. "And I let him."

"Why?"

"I think because this way he thinks he's got leverage over me. If I let him think that, then maybe I can manipulate him. You know, it's kind of like it was with my mom – he doesn't need to feed so much anymore. I get the feeling that… now he doesn't care either way if the human race continues. He's… my blood is making him more human."

"Shit."

"Exactly. The other vampire half-bloods revere him; he's got a lot of influence. If I get close to Frost then I can learn a lot that would help us."

"Lets just hope you don't turn into something else first."

"Yeah, well, I'm already a freak." Caitlyn said with a little disgust.

"Nope," Kevin said confidently, "Just different. I wouldn't have you any other way."

"Flirt." Caitlyn teased, starting to smile.

"Temptress." Kevin countered.

"Helicopter," Caitlyn said.

"Huh?"

"There's a helicopter flying around here, I can just hear it." Caitlyn was looking around.

"Who'd want to go to that dump of a town?"

"Maybe Frost's people are coming to pick him up." Caitlyn suggested with a shrug.

"You can't really hide from the sun in a helicopter," Kevin said.

"He doesn't burn."

"What?"

"I can't burn him, and apparently the sun can't either."

"He's walking around among humans?" Kevin said incredulously.

"I just told you, he's not hungry, so he's less of a threat." Caitlyn sounded defensive.

"Less, maybe, but he's still dangerous."

Caitlyn sighed. "I'll deal with it. I'm pretty sure that it's going to wear off as soon as my blood is out of his system."

"But he's got your mother's blood." Kevin insisted.

"I sensed him the first night, before he had bitten me. It was only afterward that I couldn't. It's the Daywalker blood that's the trigger. The only thing that my mother's blood was doing was drawing him to me."

"Just don't let him or anyone else feed from you again."

"I wasn't planning on it," Caitlyn said shortly. "Come on, Kevin. The last thing I need is to be attacked by you too. Blade already doesn't trust me, and I'm likely to get the third degree from King and Caulder as well about all this."

Kevin sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to sound like I was attacking you."

"Don't let Blade do it."

"What?"

"What's happening to me, or what might be happening to me," Caitlyn explained, "If it's serious, if it changes how I think, or if I permanently go off the deep end …if I become a danger to you guys I'd rather he didn't kill me. If I can't take care of it, I want you to do it."

"Cait…"

"Blade shoots first and asks questions later," Caitlyn said. "Look, it might be nothing, and I could just be overreacting, so until we get the results, could we keep my being a possible threat between us and the doctor, ok?"

"Okay," Kevin said, "but even if something happens to you, if you get the thirst or something, you'll still have some self-control. Blade doesn't feed anymore. Jenson could make you a serum or give you a cure. But it might be nothing. It could just be that your senses are getting stronger, and it's just feeling a little weird to you." Caitlyn didn't say anything. "You don't want to bite me, do you?" Kevin asked.

Caitlyn looked at him. "No. But I haven't even got fangs."

"Exactly." Kevin said, "So until there's something to worry about, don't worry. Concentrate on our other problems."

"I am thirsty, though," Caitlyn said. Kevin gave her a quick, questioning look. "You got any water?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah," Kevin said with relief. "In the glove box." Caitlyn got out the bottled water and took a drink. "I can hear that helicopter now," Kevin said. "I think it's somewhere ahead of us, coming this way."

"It is," Caitlyn said, putting the cap back on the bottle. "We should be able to see it in a moment. There's something big, like a truck coming too." She glanced over at Kevin. "You should probably put your seatbelt on. Cops do patrol these road's ya know. And if we get pulled over, I might have to eat him."

Kevin gave Caitlyn a quick look, but relaxed when he saw her smiling. She was teasing him. "Oh, I get it, you'd eat a perfect stranger, but not me, huh?" he joined in the game.

"Come on Kev, who'd want to feed from you?" Caitlyn laughed.

"Take it back," Kevin pretended to sound hurt. "Take it back or I'll tell everyone about the time you lost your temper and we got banned from that gym and almost arrested. I'll tell them exactly what you did to the instructors."

"You wouldn't," Caitlyn said, her expression turning mock-dangerous.

"Admit it," Kevin persisted, "I'd be delicious."

Caitlyn couldn't help it, she started laughing. "Okay, okay," she said, "you win."

"Keep going."

"You're my best friend, and best friends would eat each other first." Caitlyn held her hands up in surrender.

"Damn straight." Kevin said, his expression so serious that Caitlyn started laughing again. While she was laughing she reached over and pulled Kevin's seatbelt past his head so she could do it up for him. He didn't even flinch when she got close to his neck; he trusted her, at least enough to warn him if she was becoming dangerous. "What about yours?" he asked.

"The strap is stuck." Caitlyn said. "Besides, I'd probably survive a crash. And no matter how hungry, I wouldn't want to eat your remains if they got all squished."

"I knew it, you only love me for my looks." Kevin made his bottom lip tremble.

"Well I certainly don't love cry-babies!" Caitlyn said. Then she smiled and gave Kevin a peck on the cheek.

"I accept your apology," Kevin said formally. "Yep, there's your truck up ahead."

"And there's the helicopter, off to the right there," Caitlyn pointed it out.

"I see it," Kevin agreed. "You know what's on it yet?"

"Well by your logic, there wouldn't be any vamps on it, remember?" Caitlyn said.

"Yeah, but do those humans feel different to you?" Kevin asked seriously.

"It needs to be a little closer," Caitlyn said. "Give me a minute." She quietly stared up at the approaching black helicopter. She stretched lazily and closed her eyes. "Mixed company," she said after a few more moments. "Humans and one vampire in the helicopter."

"He must be covered up," Kevin said.

"Or he's using that sun-block Blade talked about." Caitlyn said. "And in answer to your question, the signature is different, but I can still tell that they're humans. Each signature isn't quite the same anymore. I can't put my finger on how it's different, not yet at least."

"All right then," Kevin said.

"Huh," Caitlyn said absently, and frowned.

"What?"

"There's a vampire on the truck too," Caitlyn said, "along with several humans." She looked out the back of the jeep toward the town. "What is going on? Invasion of Hicksville?"

"Should we follow them back when they go past us?" Kevin asked.

"Without backup?" Caitlyn asked.

"You're not scared," Kevin said.

"No, but I'm already in trouble with everyone else for going off on my own, add to that I'm getting unpredictable, what with socialising with the enemy and draining familiars, and then add to that that we're going to go off on our own without telling the others why we're delayed. I've already shown them that I'm not a very trustworthy person."

"But you do your job; you hunt and kill the vampires. You're still one of us."

"I'm a vampire's bastard child; I've seen the way they look at me sometimes. I'm not human and I never will be."

"Neither is Blade, and _he_ never saved my life. Are we going to do this or what?" Kevin asked. "I can't have you losing your nerve on me just because of what the others think."

"I'm not losing my nerve," Caitlyn said, "Do it. Follow them."

Kevin nodded. "I'm going to have to wait until they get to the town, though, or they'll see us in the rear-view."

"Pull over, so we be any further from the town by the time they get there. I'll pretend to check the engine or something when they pass us."

"Got it." Kevin pulled the jeep over, and Caitlyn hopped out.

The helicopter was flying low overhead, and it passed them. The truck wasn't far off. Caitlyn turned her back to it as Kevin released the hood of the car. Caitlyn pushed up the hood and bent a little so that it shaded her from the light. Her fingers hovered over the parts of the jeep she'd never bothered to learn about. Kevin was the mechanic, not her.

She glanced up over the hood and froze. The helicopter was circling, turning back around. "Uh, oh." She said, and let the hood drop. "Start the jeep." She said, as she went back around to her side.

"What?"

"The helicopter's coming back." Caitlyn hopped in as Kevin did as she'd said.

"We gonna try and run?" Kevin asked, as the jeep rolled forward.

"No, U-turn it, we'll hide out in the town. They'll have to come out and split up to find us, and we'll pick them off. Watch out!"

The truck was on them, swerving onto their side of the road to connect with them. Caitlyn hit the dashboard and Kevin hit his door as they were slammed sideways. They were pushed off the road and into the ditch beside it, so that the jeep tipped up and over, landing upside down in the dust.

The helicopter noise was getting louder. Caitlyn was lying in the dirt, several feet away from the jeep. She touched her head and pulled her hand away bloody. She should have tried to wear the seatbelt. She looked back at the jeep. Kevin was dazed and bruised, maybe unconscious, but he was alive; she could feel it. There was the sound of scuffing on the ground; many boots tramping their way. The dust flew as the helicopter hovered nearby.

She tried to move but it hurt. Dammit, she was sick of being kidnapped. She forced herself up to a sitting position and her vision swam. She couldn't see them, but she could feel them. She rolled over on her hands and knees, and almost didn't have to pretend to throw up. She knew she looked helpless.

Someone grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to her feet. She let them; she needed the help. She gave him a hook to the face and kneed him in the stomach. She kicked someone else in the face and nearly lost her balance. She couldn't see, so she couldn't burn anyone, and someone pushed her to the ground. She felt a gun get pushed into her ribs as she stared at the sand that seemed to spin below her face. She tried to get up again and someone kicked her, and she moaned involuntarily as she fell over.

She lay on her back and was too dizzy to get up. Her eyes weren't focussing, although she could see the blurs that meant people were standing over her. There was blood over one of her eyes, and a little in her mouth. She moved her head a little and spat it out. She wanted to try and get up again, even though it hurt and she couldn't be sure which way was up. She couldn't admit to herself that she'd lost. She was grabbed by the arms and tried to struggle, but they hauled her away. Damn humans had got the better of her. Damn humans.

**AN: I haven't quite decided what Caitlyn is going to be like yet, or whether Blade is going to attack her for it.**


	13. Whose fault is it?

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Whose fault is it?

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There was an overturned jeep and blood on the sand. Deacon pulled the van over to take a closer look. He got out of the van and smelled fresh blood. Among it, hers. He knew her blood like he knew her face. He'd heard the helicopter, but it had hovered around outside the town and then left. He'd been curious enough to come and investigate.

He walked toward the jeep and saw that there was a man trapped inside. Kevin moaned softly, and Deacon heard it. He didn't recognise the man, but he had Caitlyn's smell on him, so she'd been around him recently. Deacon reached under the jeep and wrenched the seatbelt free, and grabbed Kevin's arm.

He pulled Kevin out from under the jeep a little roughly, and sat him up to get a look at him. Kevin had a shallow head wound and bruises on his arms and cheek. Kevin was awake, and blinked up at Frost.

"You! Why the hell are you helping me?" Kevin asked.

"I made a deal with your friend," Deacon answered, "I think she'd get a little pissed at me if I let you die." Deacon saw a bottle resting under the jeep and dragged it out for Kevin. "Drink, then tell me where she went."

Kevin took a sip and said, "Why don't you ask your people? It was vampires and familiars who took her."

"It wasn't my people," Frost said. "I gave strict instructions that I was not to be disturbed. I never even told them that she was with me."

"Lucky guess then," Kevin said dryly. "Does anyone else know? That you can walk around in the daytime?"

"I haven't told anyone." Frost said. "My people know enough not to attack her, but they don't know what she did. I'm not stupid enough to tell them what her blood can do because she'd be drained to death in no time."

"Less for you, huh?" Kevin said harshly.

"She's no good to me dead," Frost said, taking Kevin's upper arm. It was more or less the answer that Kevin had expected. Frost pulled him to his feet and they found that he could stand unaided. Kevin walked with a slight limp toward Deacon's van.

"What's the plan?" Frost asked him.

"You're asking me?" Kevin said incredulously.

Frost shrugged. "I told you. I made a deal. Believe what you want about me, but I'll stick by it. Even if it does mean that I have to see old ass-face again."

Kevin almost grinned, and then reminded himself whom he was talking to. "You got a cell phone with you?" he asked.

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She'd been awake the entire time, for a change. They'd airlifted her out of there. She felt sick and sore, but she knew it would pass, providing they did nothing worse to her than tie her up and drag her around. She could see now out of both eyes, because one of the men had wiped the blood away from her face.

She stayed quiet and so did they. Clearly, they were just lackeys. She would uncover the game soon enough, if she just bided her time.

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**AN: Sorry about the short length, but this chapter is just 'filler' for until I'm finished with exam revision. Then you'll have to wait until I can get back on the internet again. Arg.**


	14. Meetings

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MEETINGS

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The Nightstalkers were not happy to see Frost. They were not happy that he could walk out in the daylight, or that they weren't supposed to hunt his people. Kevin had been injured and an unknown vampire enemy had kidnapped Caitlyn. Basically, they were pssed off at the whole situation.

Blade had been busy getting a serum update when the van had arrived. Frost got out of the van and stood by the door. King had been keeping watch outside, and Abby and Caulder were inside the shed.

When Caulder had left with Zoe the night before he had taken her to a sleeper Nightstalker unit. Perhaps they should have done that in the first place, but Abby was a softie and had liked having a reminder of Dr Summerfield around. They'd agreed that it was definitely too dangerous though, and Zoe was taken to safety.

Frost crossed his arms over his chest and gave Abby and Caulder a superior grin. King followed the van in, with a gun raised to point at Frost's chest. "Relax, buddy," Frost said to King. "If I'd wanted to kill you people I'd have started with this one here." He jerked his thumb toward Kevin, who limped around the van.

Abby took a glance at Frost through a pair of specialised night vision goggles and seemed to disbelieve what she saw. "Shit," she said softly. Blade appeared at her side. Abby turned to him and said softly, "He's not at human warmth yet, but he's getting there."

"Hey, Blade," Frost said in a pleasant tone of voice, while putting his hands in his pockets and smirking up at the warrior. "So, how's your girlfriend?" he said.

Blade didn't say anything.

"What, no conversation?" Frost asked. "Isn't this the part where you ask why you shouldn't just shoot me where I stand?"

"No," Blade said. "This is the part where you start making yourself useful before someone does decide to off you. Tell him what you know about the beasts." Blade pointed to Caulder who was standing at a workbench with maps and a laptop. "Kevin," Blade continued, "the man out back says he's military. Tell him about the soldiers, the truck and the helicopter and see what he can tell you about who owns them."

"And then what are we doing?" Frost asked.

"Well so far, we don't know sht about the where the beasts came from and why," Blade explained while checking one of his guns, "so we're going hunting tonight. If you want to honour your part of the deal," Blade gave a wry smile, "you'll call your people once it gets dark and get them to try and catch another one. If you haven't pssed me off too much by nightfall, you're coming with us."

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By the time they landed Caitlyn wasn't dizzy anymore, and when they led her underground she walked unaided. Once out of sunlight's reach, the vampire supervisor took off the thick-lensed gas mask that he'd been wearing. His appearance was unremarkable; a human on the street wouldn't have given him a second glance. Balding grey hair, bags under his eyes and a cheap suit that tried to imitate an expensive one. He gave her an apathetic look and raised his arm to gesture down the navy blue hallway.

Wordlessly, she followed them through the passageways that were lit by fluorescent lights on the floor, either side of the dark grey strip of carpet that they walked on. She didn't struggle or attempt to elude them, and she was strangely calm. She had no fear of them, despite whatever advantage they may have had over her because of her injuries and captivity. She should have been a little nervous, but she wasn't. All she knew was that she'd be dead by now if they'd wanted her dead.

Some of the soldiers had stayed above ground, but four were escorting her; two in front with the vampire leading them, and two behind her. Since her capture they had offered her no violence, but they hadn't offered her any explanations either.

They led her three floors down in an elevator and down another dim hall to a windowless metal door that looked sturdy enough to withstand a small explosion. The vampire pressed a button on an intercom device in the wall and said simply: "We are here," in a tired voice. A soft buzzing was heard and something in the door clicked. Someone inside had unlocked it. The vampire pulled it open and gestured Caitlyn inside. She was the only one who entered.

There was a long, shiny black, rectangular table with thirteen leather chairs arranged around it. Six per long side, and one at the other end. That last, furthest chair was the only one that was occupied.

The vampire was well preserved, but Caitlyn could tell somehow that he was old. He had black hair that grew to his shoulders,and had been combed back to rest behind his head in a ponytail. His skin looked white under the lights in the ceiling and he clearly had no scarring. He was a pureblood. He had a square jaw, a straight nose and curvy lips. His face looked like an alabaster sculpture. His eyes were dark, and looked black against the colour of his skin.

His suit was expensive, a dark blue one over a white shirt. His tie was black, save for a vertical dash of red. Caitlyn had noticed a logo with a red stripe on it on the side of the helicopter. She suspected that she was facing the man in charge. If he was going to give them, now she was going to get her answers.

"Why am I here?" she asked, slowly stepping forward.

"We want your help," the vampire said evenly.

"Join the club," Caitlyn said. "What's in it for a half-human like me?"

"Tell me," the vampire said slowly, while absently playing with a pen on his desk, "what do you know about these new monsters roaming around at night-time?"

Caitlyn glanced away as she thought for a moment. "They're hunting both our kinds. They're harder to kill but they do die. How about you, what do you know?"

The vampire gave a weak smile, still looking down at the pen, as though he had no interest in the conversation. "They are old, Miss Groveton, older than you might realise."

Caitlyn frowned. "You know who I am?"

"We do. Miss Groveton, let me tell you a story."


	15. Bloody Genesis

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BLOODY GENESIS

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"Before humans as we know them existed, La Magra, the blood god, and his pets walked the earth, destroying everything in sight, but they soon starved, even though the creatures back then did not turn; they killed everything. The god and the surviving beasts retreated deep below ground and slept. When man emerged, La Magra held back his pets and their ravenous hungers until the humans started flourishing.

He created the first of his humanoid children, Dagon, who later became known as Dracula, and then Drake, the first of _Hominus nocturna_. He turned a human female who bore the first pureblood children. Though Drake later learned to survive in sunlight, his female and his progeny could not stand the agony and stayed below ground. Eventually they lost all resistance to the sunlight, and it became death to venture above ground during the day. Being made by the blood god himself, Drake was strong, and learned to withstand the light.

Though Drake was able to feed on any creature with blood, including other blood-drinkers, his children only fed off and turned humans, creating half-bloods. With each feeding they turned more humans, and the need to regularly feed meant that this increase in vampire numbers could not last because they would exhaust the human population.

For this reason La Magra had not emerged completely into the surface world, because he wanted an army of subjects as well as the means to feed and sustain them forever. He deemed that it was not the time to change all of mankind into his children until he had a way of keeping them alive and strong. He wanted vampires that did not have to feed on human blood alone, but through the generations that particular mutation never successfully emerged. Recently, a vampire had achieved via genetic engineering what evolution could not, but the progeny still could not sustain themselves, and were little better than animals, mindlessly feeding on anything. They were wiped out not long after their creation.

Back to the point; Drake was a type of Daywalker, and his blood was capable of reviving his father. However, instead of awakening his father when it was time for his reign, he too, slept, until he was summoned, not long ago, by his descendants and slain by another Daywalker, Blade.

Drake had known that he might miss the time of his father's resurrection, so before he slept he tried to create a new Daywalker to take his place. When he had first turned a female into a vampire, sunlight had burned her and any children she had. He took instead a human female, and did not bite her until she bore him a child. Once he found that it could withstand the light, he turned the mother and left her to raise and protect it. He never discovered that the child was not a vampire.

When it was found that the child did not drink blood, and was as weak as a human, the vampire mother tried to turn him repeatedly without success. Drake had inadvertently created the human immunity that your mother carried, which, as it carried the strength of Drake's own blood,was also capable of reviving weak and dying vampires. The child fled into the light before he was drained to death, and disappeared. Seeing as your mother existed, he apparently survived to raise his own human family; his bloodline resulting in you.

When, Frost, the would-be vessel of La Magra was slain, again, by the Daywalker Blade, the blood god retreated, as it was obviously not his time. However, he did try to emerge again when the rapidly-renewable blood of a mortal was used to resurrect his vessel. You see, your mother was the key to a sustainable population of humans. If we had many more humans like her that would not turn and who could survive multiple feedings, then La Magra would be able to rise and turn all other humans into his children.

Unfortunately, the fools who conducted the ritual killed her when they used her. We don't know of any other human who had her ability. The god must have sensed this and withdrawn, but his vessel remained and the gates to the world beneath were left open. His pets have started to emerge, seeking out the Daywalkers and the vessel, and without their master's guidance they are feeding on both vampires and humans in their mindless hunger.

The blood of certain beings, such as Daywalkers or the human strain of Dagon's bloodline, can open the gates, to release the blood god or his servants but it takes the power of a god to close them. To prevent more beasts from emerging, we must call forth the blood god again. To prevent the blood god from lingering and turning the humans, his new vessel must be slain again to seal them back underground."

Caitlyn was quiet for a moment. She had lots of questions to ask. "Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Thomas Arvin. I have an interest in you and your history because my older brother was the vampire who kept Rebecca Groveton prisoner. I am perhaps the only living vampire that knows who you and your parents were."

"You're my uncle?" Caitlyn asked softly.

"Yes."

"And I'm just guessing here, but I assume you found out all of that stuff about vampire origins from the Blood Texts?"

"Yes." He seemed very calm, and patiently waited for her questions.

Caitlyn kept piecing the information together. "You want to close the gates but you need a Daywalker like me to do it, as well as a vessel. That's why you brought me here."

"That is true, but you needn't be the one who is sacrificed. Two more Daywalkers exist now. Blade and Deacon Frost are both capable of reviving the Blood God."

"You know about Frost?"

"His second in command works for us."

Caitlyn nodded. "And that explains how you knew where I was. You said you wanted my help." She sighed. "You want me to bring you one of the other Daywalkers for the ritual."

"Yes." Arvin replied. "You know them both, and they are now both your allies."

Caitlyn gave a weak chuckle. "And to save the world I have to betray one of my allies to a pureblood vampire. You do realise that even if I was willing to do that I'm no stronger than either of them. "

"You can be," Arvin told her. "Frost is a half-blood, and was Blade's sire. You, on the other hand, are descended from a pure-blooded vampire and a human of Drake's bloodline. Drake had the ability to change his shape. His extra strengths remained latent in his human descendants, but when recombined in you, the daughter of a vampire, you can use it. Through some trick of natural mutation you use that same strength to create heat and to nourish natural life."

"Why aren't I more of a vampire?" Caitlyn asked, grabbing the opportunity to learn more about herself. "I have never needed to feed on blood before. Even Blade has the thirst."

"The immunity you carry protects you from the thirst. Your blood doesn't need to be replenished because it does that by itself. It is also why Frost has been able to go longer between feedings since he took blood from you." Arvin paused and looked down at his hands. "What you need to know, you know. What you do with that information is now up to you. If you seek my resources, you'll have them." He looked back up at Caitlyn as he took a key from his pocket and offered it to her. "You may leave or stay, as you wish."

The key was for Caitlyn's restraints. Inexplicably, she started laughing. "Oh, what is it with you vampires and thinking that you have to kidnap and restrain me just to get a conversation with me?" She gave a weak smile as she sobered and thought about her decision. To save the world, one, or maybe even two of the Daywalkers had to die. The vessel, certainly. The blood giver, maybe. But no one said that another vampire couldn't take Frost's place. As Arvin had said, now that she knew what she needed, it wasup to her.

She had one last question that perhaps her uncle could answer. "The beasts that have already escaped; what happens if you survive a bite or a claw slash?"

"I don't know. As far as I know, there have been no survivors. I suppose that you will have to discover the answer for yourself."

Caitlyn couldn't help but grimace a little, and closed her eyes.

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**AN: I'm hoping to make the next chapter really long and cover a lot of ground, so it may take me a fair while to get it posted. But hey, maybe I'll finish it quickly or it may be much shorter than I expected. We'll just see what happens.  
PS: I'm getting close to finishing up this story. Yay for me.**


	16. The hunt

**AN: Wow, writing this chapter was like pulling out a tricky splinter. Hard, slow and painful. I didn't do any writing over the Christmas break and I'm only just recently getting back into it.**

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THE HUNT

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Caitlyn leaned against a chair; thinking. Whatever her decision, if she wanted to stop more Hellbeasts from emerging then she'd have to act soon.

She didn't know if word of Frost's deal had reached the Nightstalkers yet. She might have to act fast to prevent Blade and Frost from trying to kill each other.

She gently ran her fingertips over her head wound, and found it little more than a graze by now. She wasn't sure if Kevin was still trapped under the jeep in the desert or not. He could be dying for all she knew.

"Here's what I want from you," she said to Arvin. "Transportation to the spot where I was taken and then transportation to wherever I choose. Not the helicopter; I'll want something less obvious. I want directions to the Temple of Eternal Night. I'll also want the use of one of your familiars for however long I need."

"Will the human need to be expendable?" Arvin asked.

"I'm not sure," Caitlyn said, and then something passed over her face, like resolve and need. "Better make that yes. I'm not sure what else is going to happen today. I'll also want a means of communicating with you if I want your help but I also want complete independence. You don't monitor me, you don't make demands on me. You give me information or warnings if and when you get them. That's the only way I'm going to do this for you. Clear?"

"Of course," Arvin replied smoothly. "As I said before, the decisions are yours."

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Frost wasn't human; hadn't been for a long while, and therefore wouldn't make a move to stop other vampires from attacking humans; wouldn't protect the humans like she and Blade did. If he became less dependent on them, got to live among them in sunlight, in time… maybe he might learn to care. But that was only a possibility if both she and Frost were going to be around for a while longer.

Even if Caitlyn hadn't been confused about her loyalties, she knew that if he was made the vessel again that he would fight to the death and possibly win, meaning that La Magra would emerge into the world and bring down Bloody Armageddon. Frost had a strong will to live. He'd made it clear when he'd abandoned the warehouse. She couldn't risk it.

But he was still a Daywalker. At least for as long as her blood held out in his system, he'd be one of them.

Any one of the three Daywalkers could be bled and used to bring forth the Blood God. The bleeding was a survivable process, if there was someone close at hand to help the Daywalker regain his or her strength. A human to feed on. Caitlyn didn't know how much blood would be needed – even her mother, a person able to regenerate it quickly, had died from the draining. From what she'd heard, Blade had nearly killed doctor Jensen when she saved him. He'd been wild with the blood lust until he'd recovered.

In Caitlyn's opinion, it was probably the attack by his vampire mother that had brought him back. The confrontation, the fight, and the closure when he'd killed her had probably given him back his clarity, and the desire to destroy the vampire responsible.

If the drained Daywalker couldn't make it back in time to stop La Magra, a third would be needed to destroy the vessel. Caitlyn never believed in destiny, but it was a strange coincidence that now there was three Daywalkers. Of course, there were still more options, more solutions to the problem, depending on what she decided to do.

If and if and perhaps and maybe. She had the choice, because she was the one who'd been given the knowledge.

Another complication to consider: she didn't know if a Daywalker _could_ be the vessel. Frost was only a vampire when he'd done it. And if it was possible, perhaps a god-infused Daywalker would be harder to kill than a god-infused vampire. What else might it affect? If it came down to her being the vessel, the god would have all of her senses and abilities. Arvin had said that she'd be stronger than the other two, which meant she couldn't risk it, or else the god would be loosed on the world. She wasn't naïve enough to believe she could control a being that was as old as the world itself. No, better to make it another vampire, someone she wouldn't care about losing.

Last time there had been twelve pureblood sacrifices. Would she need those too? Did they have to be pureblood? Frost hated them, which was perhaps why he'd used them. She should have asked Arvin, but she hadn't thought of it. Until now all she'd heard was the stories that circulated among the Nightstalkers. She was no scholar, and never bothered to learn more than she needed to about vampires to do her job.

Caitlyn sighed and rubbed her eyes. She normally slept during daylight hours, and she hadn't slept properly since her initial capture by Frost. It was also likely that she was going to need more energy. It regenerated on it's own, like her blood, but she'd used some of it and hadn't rested since draining the last familiar, and she might need it to heal Kevin. It was one thing she'd thought of when making her demands, which was why a young man was in the driver's seat beside her. He was wearing the company suit and tie. He was clean-shaven and well manicured with glasses and perfectly straight teeth. Everything about him screamed _clean_. He didn't say anything to her except when she'd asked him his name. Gary. Other than that he'd driven in silence, not even looking at her. If she could smell or sense emotions other than blood lust, she was sure that his would have been indifference.She was going toget him to call Arvin soon and ask about the pureblood part of the ritual.

They arrived back at the crash site and Caitlyn got out to investigate the scene. She smelled the blood, and knew it to be several hours old. No sign of Kevin. At least he wasn't dead in the sand. Caitlyn ran her hand through her hair and tried to work out a few bloody tangles as she glanced around. She went to her knees and looked beneath the jeep and saw nothing but the empty water bottle on its side. She was disappointed; she kicked the door and left a large dent in it. She went back to her knees and half-closed her eyes.

She was so tired; abnormally so. She tilted her head back and took several deep breaths, trying to keep calm as her shoulders started shaking. She was afraid of what she thought she might need now. She leaned forward and grabbed handfuls of sand to squeeze as another tremor shook her upper body.

Hunger.

She felt human warmth beside her and gritted her teeth. Her peripheral vision told her that Gary had knelt down beside her. She'd barely registered the sharp tangy smell of new blood when she saw his arm extended in front of her face, with the sleeve rolled up and a new cut on the wrist. He was offering his arm palm-up toward her. She shot him a confused look.

"What?" she asked in a heavy breath.

"I was instructed to offer you _any _service that you might require from me. You seem thirsty to me."

With a dazed expression, Caitlyn looked back at his arm and frowned.

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Three vampires were getting out of a limousine outside a club, and three hunters watched them.

Jack, the body-bag survivor with 'military experience', had volunteered to help the Nightstalkers. In any case, he was already marked as a human who knew too much about the vampires, so he had little choice. He was with Abby and King as they started to patrol the pre-dusk streets. He had a silver-loaded gun and Caitlyn's repaired earpiece.

Kevin was using Frost's van to patrol the streets, with Caulder set up in the back to monitor the others. It was safer to be mobile than to stay in the all-too-findable warehouse.

The two immortals, Frost and Blade, were hunting together, but only because Blade didn't want to let the other Daywalker out of his sight. The two were travelling to a downtown alley where one of Frost's people had reported that there'd been a suspicious vampire slaying.

Frost had also been helpful enough to betray a pureblood club to the Nightstalkers, which was why Abby, King and Jack were watching the vampires arrive. The vampires went inside and their car pulled away. From their rooftop vantage point, Abby took aim at the bouncer with her bow for a silent kill. She paused when another car pulled up, a dark convertible, and they recognised the woman to be Caitlyn. The man who had driven them went inside the club first without even a second glance from the bouncer, and Caitlyn followed him.

"Isn't that…" Jack asked softly.

"Yeah," Abby cut him off.

"Why the hell's she getting VIP treatment at a Fang club?" King asked.

"Maybe because she can pass herself off as one of them." Abby suggested, but she didn't sound convinced.

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Caitlyn hadn't noticed or sensed her friends. She was too busy following the scent and interpreting her senses. She was now starting to tell who was pureblood and who was not, even through the din of the music and the mass of bodies.

Twelve to be saved now, else the ritual would have to wait for another night and more of the beasts would be let loose. One of them was coming here; she could feel it. It was drawn by the scent of all of the carelessly spilled blood that these clubs were famous for. Taking twelve purebloods alive with only one civilian human to help her was going to be a tall order, but perhaps she could quietly kidnap a few and store them in a back room before the trouble started and subdue more during the confusion.

If she'd had the other Nightstalkers with her they could block off the entrances for her. She really wasn't sure if she wanted to involve her human friends. Gary might betray them, or worse, she might. It was bad enough that she was working with an enemy and getting a little too cozy with another one, but instead of killing vampires she was going to kidnap them and keep them alive, and on top of everything else, blood was getting harder to pass up.

Some of the blood from a random human victim landed close to her feet as she waded through the room, and she made herself ignore it. Both her human side who wanted to save the half-dead girl, and her other side that wanted to tear the girl's throat out. Having a job to do helped Caitlyn to shut it out.

Gary led her to the door behind a black curtain that led to a much quieter corridor. There were private rooms either side of this corridor. She had a little bit of time left to start taking prisoners. She worked methodically down the left corridor, knocking out vampires as they played with their victims, and using the chains that she'd found in the first torture room to link a couple of them together. She had five by the time the beast was outside the building, and she left Gary to watch her captives with a gun in his hand to make sure they were there when she got back.

The creature burst in the window of one of the private rooms and quickly barrelled through the door. Caitlyn had left the hallway cleared of vampires so the creature immediately roared toward the main clubroom where most of the blood was being spilled. Meanwhile, the Nightstalkers had gotten in contact with each other and had gathered outside the club. It was already frenzied in the clubroom when Blade kicked in the front door and started firing into the mass of vampires.

Caitlyn wrist-locked another pureblood and threw him headfirst into a wall, successfully knocking him unconscious. A second beast skidded onto the slippery surface of the blood-soaked dance floor as Caitlyn ran up to Blade and knocked the gun out of his hand.

"What the fk you playin' at?" he yelled at her.

"I need them _alive_!" she yelled back.

Frost entered the club behind them whilst Jack, King and Abby stood guard just outside to kill anyone who tired to slip past.

The attention of beast number one was drawn to the group of Daywalkers and it leapt at the closest one with a roar. Frost knocked Caitlyn to the floor and it sailed over them to meet the swift edge of Blade's sword.

"Don't kill the purebloods!" Caitlyn gasped out as she shoved Frost off of her. "We'll need them to stop the beasts."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Blade said, but he used the butt of his sword to strike back a vampire that tried to pass him. It was only a halfblood, but Caitlyn didn't bother to correct him, seeing as they already had a truce with Frost.

Caitlyn scrambled toward the fallen gun so that she could go after the second beast. If she got rid of it quickly she could minimise pureblood casualties. Already a few of the vampires had been mangled to death. Whilst trying to avoid hitting the panicking vampires, Caitlyn aimed and fired at the remaining beast. She dodged as it came after her and kept firing, managing to bring it down. She then spun and kicked a passing vampire in the face. Not a pureblood. She tried to focus again and found a couple of them trying to run out the back way. She ran back toward the curtained back exit and into the corridor. Frost followed her as the rest of the Nightstalkers moved into the club. Blade told them what to do as they went about subduing every vampire in sight until Caitlyn could get back and identify the purebloods for them.

"Hey kitten, aren't I even going to get a thankyou?" Frost asked Caitlyn as he ran beside her. "After all, I'm working with your friends and I brought back that kid Kevin for you."

"Thanks," Caitlyn said shortly, "but I'm kind of busy right now."

Frost lunged forward and tackled one of the vampires around the waist as Caitlyn jumped and kicked the second one over and onto the floor. They hit the two purebloods until they were unconscious or close to it and dragged them back to the main room.

The Nightstalkers had mostly been shooting into the legs of the vampires and fighting hand to hand so that they could be caught alive. Caitlyn and Frost helped to subdue the last of them and then Caitlyn started counting. They had six purebloods in the main room. The rest had been killed or were only half-bloods.

"I've got five in a back room under guard," Caitlyn said, "but we're still short."

"What's going on?" Abby asked.

The moment had come for Caitlyn to decide how much she was going to tell them.

Now that things were quieter, Kevin limped into the club to make sure his friend was really okay. Caitlyn saw his injuries and looked away as the hunger started to rise again. "Stay back, Kevin, please." She glanced back. "Remember that thing we talked about? It's not time yet, but you need to be cautious." Then she looked at the rest of them. "Listen up. The beasts don't come from any lab. They're not something new; they're old. There are more of them, maybe thousands more, and they'll keep coming unless we trap them back where they came from."

"Where are they from?" Abby asked.

"We have to go back to the Temple of Eternal Night," Caitlyn said, ignoring King's derisive look at the strange name. "I'm not sure exactly where they're coming up, but if we re-create the ritual to awaken La Magra, then the death of his vessel should close up the gateway between our world and the underworld."

Blade gave a hard look at Frost and Caitlyn quickly added, "We can't use him. He's a Daywalker. The stronger the vampire that we put in the centre, the more powerful La Magra will be when he comes back. It has to be a normal vampire, preferably a half-breed. We also need one more pureblood, and one of us," she glanced at Blade and Frost, "has to volunteer to be bled."

"Then we'll also need a volunteer to feed that Daywalker," Frost said.

"I've been thinking about that," Caitlyn said, "and maybe not. My ancestors were meant to be a renewable blood source for the vampires. I can recover quicker than anyone, and there will still be the two of you to stop La Magra whilst I get better."

"What about the rest of us?" King asked.

"You can be nearby, but you shouldn't be on the floor with La Magra. All he has to do is touch you and you'll be turned." Caitlyn explained. "However, if it is going to be me, I think I need to pay a visit to Doctor Jensen first. I need some kind of serum to hold back the thirst."

"You're changing?" Abby asked.

"Yeah." Caitlyn said. She glanced at Frost. "I have an idea for the half-blood to use as the vessel. Your second-in-command is a traitor, and a spy for Thomas Arvin. He's the reason I got run off the road with Kevin. Even with the truce in place, I'm sure you wouldn't mind giving him up." Frost nodded.

"So now all we'll need is that last pureblood and some serum for you." Blade said.

"And some of that stuff you used to stop La Magra the first time," King added.

Caitlyn nodded, feeling a little better. The decisions were being taken out of her hands. It wasn't up to her alone to save the world anymore. It was up to the Nightstalkers and the Daywalkers.


	17. AWOL

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AWOL

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There was no hope of privacy for the next few hours, as the crew divided themselves up to travel in the van, the convertible and the jeep toward Dr Jensen's current lab. Time was short, especially if the darker side of Caitlyn's heritage was fighting to free itself. She shivered as another pang of hunger swept through her.

Abby had called ahead to let Jensen know that they were coming and to give them a heads up about needing anti vamp serum for the re-execution of La Magra and about needing a check-up and a hunger repelling serum for Caitlyn. They had taken a sample of her blood and emailed the results on to Dr Jensen so that she could get some of the analysis done whilst they were en route.

Caitlyn sat in the back of Frost's van with Kevin and Abby while Caulder drove. She closed her eyes and did her best to focus on anything else but the lingering scent of blood. The other two Daywalkers were in the jeep together because Caitlyn had started swearing at Frost when he made jokes about licking the mixing bowl during the blood sample collection.

She was getting unreasonably irritable with everyone and Frost still couldn't be trusted on his own so he'd been put with Blade, who could handle him. King was good at pissing everybody off, so he was in the jeep too, but Kevin was Caitlyn's best friend and had become an expert on soothing her when she was frustrated. Abby was a good peacekeeper as well, so they sat with her as she fought to stay calm. They still needed her to identify another pureblood.

Eight of them were stacked up in the back of the van like sacks of meat, all bound and gagged. Two were crammed in the boot of the convertible and one was double-wrapped in cloth and strapped to the seat in the jeep next to King. Just to be an asshole, King kept flicking the pureblood in the head, because he knew if he annoyed either of the Daywalkers then one of them might decide to throw him out of the moving vehicle. Jack was in the convertible with Gary because there was room there for him and, again, King had said something about being a blood-bag to annoy him. If he knew him better Jack would have said that King was a little nervous or something about tonight, because he couldn't seem to stop himself from making stupid comments.

Just to keep focussed, Caitlyn started talking to the other two. "Did I tell you that my uncle's still alive?"

"I thought you said your mom was an only child," Kevin answered.

"No," Caitlyn said slowly with a frown, "from my dad's side, though I guess that means 'alive' isn't the right term. He told me about the ritual and why we've been turned into animal control. He's Gary's handler."

"Uh, why do we have Gary with us anymore anyway? He already got you into that club." Abby asked.

"I thought I was going to need energy so I could heal Kevin," Caitlyn replied. "I didn't know how badly hurt you were. I might still need something later, especially if I'm going to do the bleeding soon."

"Does Gary know he was supposed to be food?" Kevin asked.

"He's a familiar; that's what they volunteer for," Caitlyn said with a tired sneer. She closed her eyes and shook her head with a soft chuckle and a sigh. She looked up and the other two noticed that her eyes weren't focussing on them. Caitlyn shook her head again, took a deep breath and glanced at Kevin. "I'm sorry…" she whispered, then abruptly burst out of the back of the van as Kevin snatched for her and missed. She was gone in moments as Abby and Kevin yelled through the partition at Caulder to stop the van. By the time he pulled over, Caitlyn was long out of sight.

The ritual had to be conducted at night, and they had perhaps an hour and a half left before sunrise.

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Caitlyn quickly found herself drawn to a hunter and his prey. The short-haired, thirty-something man had already been bitten, and the vampire barely knew she was there until she ripped his head back and threw him into a wall. She kicked the vampire in the head and then swiped his feet out from underneath him. The man grabbed at the wall for support and started babbling when Caitlyn looked at him.

"What are you?" the man whimpered as Caitlyn put her face in next to his.

"I'm a parasite," she said softly, inhaling his scent deeply before burying her face in his blood-soaked neck.

Caitlyn immediately felt awful. She shoved the man away from her and doubled over, vomiting out the blood. She wiped her mouth and leaned against the wall. She kicked the vampire back off his feet when he tried to get up.

Caitlyn's mobile phone, courtesy of Gary and Arvin, started ringing. The human in her won out but she sounded very annoyed when she answered. "What do you want?" she snapped, as she put her boot down against the back of the vampire's neck, forcing his face into the ground.

"Gary informed me that your hungers are getting worse," Arvin's cool voice came over the phone.

"You think I don't know that? What of it?" Caitlyn snarled.

"He also sent me a copy of your blood-work. Have you tried feeding off a human yet?"

"Yeah, it sucked. No pun intended." Caitlyn said.

"Your blood rejects human blood, because you don't need it. However, whenever it is mixed with vampire blood your own blood cells duplicate and mix in freely with it, converting the vampire cells, which is why you are immune to the change. Your own blood seems to be even more infective than vampirism. This is why Deacon Frost has become a Daywalker. Even before your encounter with the beasts I am sure that if it were the other way around and you fed from a vampire it wouldn't harm you. In any case, you should try seeing to your energy needs first. You are thirsty for something, but not necessarily blood." The phone clicked off.

When she thought about it, she'd had a tiny amount of Frost's blood before, and it hadn't made her feel sick. First things first though. The human had run off while she'd been talking, but the vampire was still there at her feet. She grabbed a handful of his thick, dark brown hair and pulled him to his feet. He started to say something and she punched him in the face. "I wonder…" she whispered. Whatever changes she'd been going through, maybe it meant she didn't only have to rely on the energy of mortals anymore. She half closed her eyes and willed the energy into herself. She almost giggled with relief as her thirst abated and she began to feel rejuvenated.

The vampire took longer than a human to stop struggling, but when Caitlyn was done she threw him to the ground and watched as he moaned. The vampire was still conscious, but couldn't seem to move much. She drunkenly stared at his throat for a moment, remembering Arvin's advice and then slowly shook her head. "Maybe next time," she said softly. It was a simple matter to use one of her stakes to put the vampire out permanently.

Now that she could think clearly again she could put her focus back on the task ahead of her.

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**AN: Just a short chapter because I haven't posted anything in ages, and to show everyone that I WILL CONTINUE.**


	18. Sacrifice

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SACRIFICE

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At the Temple of Eternal Night the Nightstalkers used chains to hold the ten purebloods in place. They couldn't stay down at ground level to keep them subdued, otherwise the Daywalkers would have to fight a bunch of new vampires as well as La Magra when he appeared. King, Frost and Blade were on their way back with the final two purebloods, after going hunting at another known pureblood club. They'd also gone to pick up Nick, who had betrayed Frost. They were almost ready to start the ritual without Caitlyn, because they'd had no time to go looking for her.

"Okay, so who's going in the box?" King asked, as the Daywalkers arrived and joined everyone else.

Deacon quickly saw that he was outnumbered as the others looked at him. "I guess it's my turn then isn't it?" he said dryly. He raised an accusing finger at Blade. "But I wanna get fed when this is over, right?"

Jack looked down at the still-visible needle marks in his arms and glared at Frost, but no one really took any notice as Deacon raised his arms in mock surrender and started making his way up toward the Draining Device. Jack and Blade followed him up as the rest of the humans got to work subduing Nick and the other two vampires.

"We're using Frost's second in command as the vessel?" Gary asked King as they both used padlocks and heavy chains to hold a pureblood to a stone column. They both ignored the vampire as it hissed and spat as much as it was able to through the gag. King nodded as he glanced back at Nick, who was similarly gagged and tied down in the centre of the room.

"Yep. I think Frost was looking forward to kicking his ass, but I guess he just gets to settle for leaking blood all over him until Blade cuts him to pieces."

"The Blood God can't be dismembered, can it?" Gary asked.

King stopped for a moment and thought. "No, I don't think so, but Blade's gonna want to have some fun anyway, right?" He looked at his watch. "We have to get started soon." He gave the chains one last pull to test them and started making his way upstairs.

On the top floor, Blade and Jack were securing Deacon in the device. "Don't start this going until I start moving downstairs." Blade instructed. "Then make sure you and the others aren't in the building anymore."

"What about me?" Frost demanded.

Blade glared at him for a moment, but a deal was a deal. If nothing else, once they were finished here then Frost could lead them to Caitlyn. He could always cut Frost up later. "If we get through this, that familiar's gonna come back to get you out. I just don't want any humans around to get turned and get in my way." He touched the earpiece that Caulder had given him. "Benson? Is everyone out yet?" After hearing the answer he glanced at Jack. "One minute," he instructed, and walked away.

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The purebloods and Nick were left alone for a minute while the humans left the building. Gary ran out to the middle of the floor and pressed something into Nick's hand. "I didn't know they were coming for you," he whispered. "But if I let you go now then they'll kill us both." He said. "Let them do the ritual and then you'll be able to kill them all." Nick glared out of his blackened eye before nodding reluctantly and tightening his fist on the key. Gary ran out again before Blade could see or smell him.

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Frost growled as the device's blades pressed into his wrists. The front of it had clicked shut so that he was fully encased in the blackened marble, and could only see out of the slit in front of his eyes. Jack listened to Frost swearing under his breath for about half a minute before he spoke up. "How much of the blood do you think you have to lose?" he asked.

"What do you care?" Frost snapped at him, sounding very bad-tempered. "Shouldn't you be running off now anyway?"

"Probably. I'm just wondering how long I have to leave you alone for before I can finish you. As long as you've served your purpose, I don't think anyone's going to care if I dust you or not." He looked at Frost through the gap in front of his face. "With this neat little window here, I don't even have to open this up to shoot you."

"What about the f&-king deal?" Frost asked.

"You're just an ambitious bastard who's always going to try to take what isn't his. I'm going to make sure you never bleed anyone again." Jack knelt down on the floor and craned his neck to look at the flow of blood sliding out of the Draining Device. "Won't be long now."

"You're pissed off with me for making you a donor? Don't you think this makes us even already? At least you were unconscious at the time. I have to feel every f&-king jab. Besides, I volunteered for this, so if you think about it I'm saving your ass."

Frost was still trying to talk his way out of it as Caitlyn walked into the construction site above them, dragging along another beaten vampire by the hair. She walked through the glare of the van's headlights toward the entrance, ignoring the others as they got up to intercept her.

King drew his gun on her and stood between her and the entrance. "Whatever you think you're doing Caitlyn, stop right there." Abby and Kevin lined up beside him while Caulder watched from the van. The blood on Caitlyn's chin was damning evidence that she'd already turned on them.

"You're not going to stop me," Caitlyn said confidently, still high from vampire energy. "You kids better move, cos I've got a job to do."

"We can still help you if you stop now," Abby said.

"I don't have time for explanations," Caitlyn said impatiently. "We're wasting the darkness." She pulled the vampire's head up and caressed her face with her free hand, pulling in a little bit of energy. "You guys might want to go protect Caulder, cos he's about to get munched on."

The humans heard growling and started shooting at the newly arrived beast as it attacked Caulder's door and then started coming for them. Caitlyn slipped off with inhuman speed during the confusion, taking the vampire with her. She could smell fresh blood and followed it to the Draining room as Jack took aim.

His gun glowed red hot and he dropped it. "Why can't you kids play nice tonight?" Caitlyn asked as she stalked toward him, while taking more energy from the vampire at the same time. She threw the nearly unconscious vampire at Jack as he ducked and rolled to one side.

He drew a knife and stabbed at her as she came in close. She grabbed his wrist and twisted it so that she threw him over her shoulder. Jack rolled over and got to a crouching position. "Don't fight me over this bloodsucking parasite," he told her.

"We're all parasites," Caitlyn said as he swung a punch at her. She blocked it and hit him in the face. "But at least I keep my promises." She kicked him away into the wall, where he slumped to the floor and fought to breathe.

Caitlyn quickly freed Frost and pulled him over to the vampire that was lying prone on the ground. "Who's that?" he slurred, as the thirst made him feel weak.

"Just a snack that I picked up on the way here." Caitlyn said as she cut her own wrist. She used her cut arm to hold Frost around the shoulders and kept her wrist in front of his face while her other hand reached out to finish draining the vampire. "Drink up, because we've still got work to do."

"Blade handled it fine last time. I died, remember?" Frost said cynically, before starting to bite down on her wrist.

"Yeah," Caitlyn said calmly, despite the pain. "But once La Magra's gone and the gates are closed, we've still got to take care of everything that has already risen. There could still be dozens of them left. They'll probably be drawn back to their master when he rises so we've got to be ready for them here." The anonymous vampire slipped into a coma as Caitlyn urged Frost to keep drinking. Soon enough he was sated and feeling strong again.

He got up and pulled Caitlyn to her feet, planting a kiss on the back of her wounded wrist. "You keep surprising me, kitten," he told her.

"Good," Caitlyn said, "because I'd hate to be predictable. Are you going to play nice, and help me save the humans?"

"Why not?" Deacon replied. "It'll probably be more entertaining, you know, more of a challenge than just killing them off."

Caitlyn smiled at him. "Good enough answer."

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The blood fell onto the faces of the purebloods as they struggled uselessly. Blade was standing back, well out of the way as the rest of the blood slowly slid to the centre of the dome in the ceiling. As the drop fell toward Nick, he covertly unlocked the chains on his wrists. Blood slid down Nick's face and the glyphs on the walls glowed brightly. Then thunderous crashing was heard all through the Temple as lightning raced down the walls to burst through the purebloods' bodies and around the raised floor where Nick was held in place.

The souls were released and they whirled around through the air like an unholy tornado before stabbing through Nick's body one after the other. Nick gasped in pain as he let the chains fall from his body. As the last of the vampire souls slammed into him he was thrown to the floor. He raised his head to look at Blade as the Daywalker approached with vials of EDTA.

La Magra chuckled deeply, and with one glance he shattered the vials to send the chemicals splashing all over Blade's front and on the ground. The Blood God was too clever to be destroyed the same way twice. Shots rang out, hitting Blade in the leg and side as Gary fired at him from the third level of the Temple. Some of the bullets were caught by Blade's body armour as he scrambled under cover, but not all of them.

La Magra moved in with blurring speed to kick Blade off of his feet and throw him into a wall. "Not this time, half-breed," he rasped, punching Blade in the head and torso, before throwing him back into the wall. Blade fought back, landing a few useless hits as Gary tried to take aim again. Blade drew his sword and in one fluid motion was able to cut off the Blood God's arm. La Magra just smirked and flung his stump backward, sending globules of blood flying toward Gary as the limb started re-forming.

The familiar trembled as the blood hit him and burrowed underneath his skin, washing through him as the Blood Tide changed him into a vampire. He laughed as his strength increased dramatically, until he was kicked forward to land on the lower platform. Gary sprang back to his feet as Caitlyn and Frost jumped down to face him and the God. Gary took off his glasses and crushed them into pieces, laughing as the glass cut into his hand. "It's Dagon's descendant," he called out to La Magra as Caitlyn leapt forward to deliver a spinning jump kick that sent him slamming back to the ground again.

Blade was still cutting pieces off of La Magra as fast as they could be regenerated, but the god just laughed at his efforts before backhanding him in the face and swiping his feet out from under him. He grabbed Blade's injured leg, clenching his hands over the wounds, and used it to launch Blade into the air at Caitlyn and Deacon before they could stake Gary.

Quick as a blink he grabbed Caitlyn's ankle and pulled her out from under the pile to hold her upside down as he stepped back again. "So your bloodline isn't finished after all," he said to her, grabbing her injured wrist with his other hand as she tried to hit him. He drew blood violently from her wound, burying into it with his fangs.

"I'm the last," Caitlyn gasped through her pain, "and the world will never be ready for your return." She kicked him in the face with her free leg.

Blade threw his double-ended throwing knife at La Magra's hand so that he dropped Caitlyn, while Deacon broke Gary's arm, hit him and staked him. They heard growling up above them as the Nightstalkers retreated into the Temple to escape the approaching pack. One way or the other, this had to finish fast.

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Up in the Draining room, Jack screamed as he was set upon by two of the Hellbeasts. Everyone else was already too busy to save him.

888

"Help them," Blade growled at Deacon as he staggered to his feet. "Now."

Caitlyn jumped on La Magra, wrapping her legs around his waist and her hands around his face and through his hair, holding back his head so that he couldn't bite her again as she stared him down. "There's more than one way to feed," she growled, digging her fingernails into his skin. Through her newly reforged link with Deacon she sent a huge power burst into him to send him climbing up the walls like a clawed serpent to get to the others.

The Blood God's neck muscles strained as he tried to force his way towards Caitlyn's throat, and Blade quickly limped up behind him to lock La Magra's arms behind his back. Caitlyn's head swam as she continued to feed energy to Deacon in order to prevent herself from being overrun by the god's power. She knew that his incredible regenerative abilities wouldn't leave him weakened for long, so when he sank to his knees she quickly said to Blade; "Give me a UV grenade and back off now."

He did as she said while she fed power into the ground, calling up vines and roots and branches. They twined around La Magra's arms and lower body, and she let go with one hand to take the grenade. She burnt a hole in his chest, pulled the pin with her teeth and forced the grenade inside as his body reformed over it. Blade grabbed her arm and helped her to scramble backward out of her still growing creation as it swirled over La Magra's head and pressed in tight around him, encasing him completely.

They both silently counted down the seconds as they stepped back and Caitlyn let her tree grow thicker and larger. They didn't even hear it as it went off, but Caitlyn was aware that any traces of the god were probably reforming into him again. She put her hands on the tree and felt grow inside as it filled in the hollow space where Nick's body had been. All of the blood particles were kept as separated as possible until they soaked into the wood itself.

Fire had been used as a method of cleansing for centuries, and Caitlyn let the wood ignite and burnt it through as quickly as she could. When the ashes cleared, she and Blade scented for and couldn't find any trace of the Blood God's vessel. It seemed that La Magra had been vanquished once more, and their heightened abilities allowed them to feel the minute trembling in the Temple's foundations as the Gates closed; wherever they were.

Caitlyn held onto Blade's hand so that she could heal the bullet wounds. "I guess you didn't get in my way after all," he said to her. She nodded and let go of his hand when he looked upward and said to her, "Let's finish this."

"Absolutely," she replied with a smile as she also looked up. The two half-breeds raced up through the levels to join Deacon and the Nightstalkers, fighting to save mankind one more time.

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**AN: I figured that writing in the final fight with the remaining beasts would have been a bit of an anti-climax after the La Magra fight, and the ending would have been obvious anyway. I thought leaving it on a dramatic note would work better, and that readers would probably figure out that Blade will once again save the day like always. I guess I'm trying to say that there is always another battle to fight. Anyway, I hope that the way I've done it turned out okay (I can always do one last chapter if it didn't), and that the Deacon-fans aren't going to kill me for leaving his future a mystery. **

**This is the only time I'll ask for reviews on this story because I want to know what you think and how I can improve it.**


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